Engineering
oratory Notes
Accurate Measurement of Refractive Indices
By Hsiung Hsu, Electrical Engineering Department, Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210
Abstract
A simple wedge measurement technique of optical refrac­
tive index is described. The procedure is more accurate and
convenient than the usual minimum deviation method and
is not limited to visible light.
Accurate measurement of refractive indices of materials
over wide spectral ranges is required for the design and
development of new devices such as parametric oscil­
lators and harmonic generators. Refractive indices of
new materials can be measured by observing the mini­
mum deviation of the light beam passing through a
wedge or prism made with the material.1 For visible
light, the technique works well; however, for infrared, it
no longer is practical. A much simpler and more accu­
rate procedure is described here.
Wedge Measurements for Refractive Index
The measurement is performed with Gaertner Scientific
Corporation's Model L-114 Research Spectrometer. The
spectrometer has a fixed arm for the light source, a rotating
center post for specimen mount, and a rotating detector
arm. The relative angle between the two rotating parts can
be measured with Vernier readings accurate to 20 arcsec. To
reduce measurement errors, the center post is kept at a fixed
angle during the measurements.
FIGURE 1. Mounting plate structure for wedge rotation.
7120 Supplement to Applied Optics / 1 December 1993
A set of plates shown in Figure 1 is stacked together
to form a rotating specimen mounting structure and clipped
to the mounting frame on top of the center post by two
springs on the frame. The wedge of the crystal with un­
known index, n, is attached to the circular mounting plate
with an opening centered at 0. Figure 2 shows a top view
of the orientation of the crystal wedge on the center post. By
rotating the circular plate and the center post, the orienta­
tion of the wedge can be adjusted without altering the aim
of the incident beam. With this arrangement, the refracted
beam always leaves the wedge at the opening centered at
0, which is exactly the center of the spectrometer. There is
no parallax in the measurement of the exit angle θ2.
In Figure 2, δ is the wedge angle of the material with
index n, θ1 is the incident angle, θ2 is the exit angle and φ2
is the angle of deviation. We have:
Thus,
Since the wedge is a prism, applying Snell's Law at the two
faces of the wedge, one gets:
Eq. 4 can be expanded and combined with Eq. 3 to obtain:
By dividing Eq. 3 and Eq. 5 one can express α as:
Equation 6 shows that the angle α can be calculated easily
once the values of the angles of δ, θl, and θ2 are measured.
FIGURE2. Top view of wedge orientation for refractive index mea­
surement.
 Engineering
oratory Notes

Then, the index n of the wedge can be obtained from either

Eq. 1 or Eq. 2 as:

or,

The conventional minimum deviation method of index

measurement requires varying θ1 to determine minimum
φ2, (φ 2,m )/ when θ1 equals to θ2. Then, from Eq. 7 and Eq. 8ƒ
one gets:

and from Eq. (2a) with θ1 = θ2 for φ 2,m one obtains:

FIGURE 3. Typical characteristics of the index measurement.

Eq. 10 shows that the minimum deviation method requires
the search for the minimum deviation angle φ 2 , m from a
series of deviation angle measurements. The proposed ap­
proach needs only one deviation angle measurement for
each index. One keeps θ1 fixed at any convenient value and
measures the value of δ and φ2. Then, one can determine φ1
from Eq. 1, θ2 from Eq. 2, and α and n from Eqs. 6-8.

Experimental Procedure
To set up the experimental measurements, the spectro­
meter's arms and post must first be leveled. The circular
mounting plate is then rotated so that the wedge faces be­
come exactly vertical planes. One can verify by rotating the
center post and observing the height of the spot of the re­
flected light from the wedge surface backward toward the
light source versus the level of the incident light aperture.
With a pinhole as the aperture, it is possible to achieve very
accurate wedge alignment for this set up. The task of mak­ FIGURE 4. Typical characteristics of minimum deviation method.
ing the reflection measurements is now performed for both
wedge surfaces to establish the wedge angle δ. During the that our proposed method is much simpler and more ac­
measurement with a fixed θ1 each measured angle of de­ curate because only one reading of φ2 is required for each
viation φ2 gives a value of index n from the above equations. index measurement.
This simple, reliable, and accurate process has been used
routinely since 1976. Our proposed set up is also adaptable
Acknowledgments
for the measurement of the nonlinear index of crystals. 2
I express my appreciation to J. D. Feichner, J. T. Veligden,
and many others at Westinghouse Research Laboratories for
Typical Characteristics their generosity, and to the National Science Foundation for
Figure 3 shows the characteristics of index n versus the a 1976 grant.
angle of deviation φ2. The three curves from top down are
calculated for incident angles θ1 of π/6, π / 9 , and π/18,
respectively, and a wedge angle δ of π/10. Each curve ter­ References
minates at its maximum peak as θ2 reaches π/2 indicating 1. R. S. Longhurst, "Geometrical and Physical Optics/'
total internal reflection. Figure 4 shows the typical charac­ (Longmans, Green, New York/London, 1962), p p .
teristics of the deviation angles calculated for three values 72-73.
of n. For minimum deviation method, it is necessary to 2. J. A. Weiss, "HF and CO 2 laser measurements of
measure each curve for every index measurement and dispersion of the nonlinear susceptibility in Zinc
search for the minimum deviation angle φ 2 , m for use in Eq. blende crystals," in Optical Properties of Highly Trans­
10 to calculate the index. In practice, the procedure is very parent Solids, S. S. Mitra and B. Bendow, eds., Ple­
long and tedious and often accumulates large experimental num, New York, p. 339 (1975).
errors especially for, say, infrared. Figure 3 certainly shows

Supplement to Applied Optics / 1 December 1993 7121