High-accuracy absolute measurement of the refractive index of air

GuangPing Xie; You-Jin Wang; Lynn J. Reiter; John C. Tsai

doi:10.1117/1.1666860

1 April 2004 High-accuracy absolute measurement of the refractive index of air

GuangPing Xie, You-Jin Wang, Lynn J. Reiter, John C. Tsai

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 43, Issue 4, (April 2004). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1666860

Abstract

A high-accuracy absolute measurement system of the refractive index of air is proposed. The measurement of the instantaneous index of refraction is achieved by comparing two laser optical paths with a differential laser interferometer. The vacuum optical path length is varied via a motor-driven trapezoidal vacuum cavity moving through a known distance. Compared to other measurement methods, the sealed vacuum cavity requires no vacuum pumping between measurements, and allows this method to function well in industrial applications. The measurement accuracy is better than 5×10^–8.

©(2004) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Citation Download Citation

GuangPing Xie, You-Jin Wang, Lynn J. Reiter, and John C. Tsai "High-accuracy absolute measurement of the refractive index of air," Optical Engineering 43(4), (1 April 2004). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1666860

Published: 1 April 2004

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