Nominal Refractive Index Research Articles

Analysis and measurement of the medium’s dispersion in the open-cavity of fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer

Various refractive index (RI) fiber-optic sensors have been developed and many studies regarded the RI of the test object as a constant. But in fact, the RI of the test object changes with wavelength which may cause large error in measurement. In this paper, two fiber-optic open-cavity Fabry-Perot interferometers were fabricated, and the dispersion of the medium in the cavity was fully considered. It was proved by theory and experiment that this sensing structure will show inconsistent sensing characteristics in the nominal RI (@589.3 nm) measurement of different mediums due to the difference of the mediums’ dispersion. In addition, a mutual calibration method of open-cavity Fabry-Perot interferometers for RI measurement was proposed and verified, which is suitable for measuring the medium’s dispersion curve at any wave band.

A Brewster incidence method for shocked dynamic metrology of transparent materials and its error evaluation

The shock etalon method with normal incidence is an effective method to extract the shocked dynamic parameters of transparent materials. In order to eliminate the sample surface reflection, additional efforts on the sample preparation are usually introduced, which may limit the application of the method. Here, we proposed a Brewster incidence method to carry out the shock compression experiment on transparent materials. By utilizing the p-polarized light as the probe pulse at Brewster incidence, the sample surface reflection can be directly eliminated, which consequently simplified the experiment preparations. The errors of the proposed method have been evaluated using a set of virtual experiments. The results show that the shocked dynamic parameters can be accurately and robustly retrieved even when the nominal refractive index of the sample deviates 0.01 from its true value, or the incident angle bias 0.33° from the Brewster angle. Finally, a set of shock compression experiments on a polycarbonate film sample are carried out, and shocked dynamic parameters, such as shock velocity, particle velocity, and shocked refractive index, are successfully measured, for demonstration.

Refractive index of soft contact lens materials measured in packaging solution and standard phosphate buffered saline and the effect on back vertex power calculation

PurposeTo measure the refractive index (RI) of commonly available soft contact lens (CL) materials, their packaging solutions and compare to the manufacturers’ nominal RI. The relationship between RI versus water content, and the effect of inaccurate RI when converting lens power measured in solution to in-air back vertex power were examined. MethodsThe RI of 18 single vision soft CL materials were measured using CLR 12–70 digital refractometer. Three lenses of each material were measured, in their packaging solution and then after soaking in standard phosphate buffered saline (PBS). The RIs of packaging solution were also measured. Accuracy requirements for correct wet to dry power conversion based on thick lens formula were projected. ResultsThe standard deviation between three samples was less than 0.005. The measured RI ranged from 1.3744 ± 0.001–1.4265 ± 0.0004 for PBS soaked and from 1.3739 ± 0.0003–1.4264 ± 0.0024 for packaging solution soaked materials. Comparing nominal with mean measured PBS and packaging solution RIs, 5 and 3 lens materials, respectively, fell outside ISO tolerance. The packaging solution RI of DailiesAquaComfortPlus had the largest difference of 0.0040, compared to RI of standard PBS. For converting lens power measured in PBS to in-air power, the difference between measured and nominal RI of 0.0104 would result in wrongly calculated in-air power 0.99 D for a -6.00 D lens. ConclusionThe CLR 12–70 is reliable and accurate refractometer for the measurement of soft CL materials. Accurate RI measurements are of relevance with increased use of wavefront sensors to measure lens power while they are immersed in solution. Even small errors in solution or material RI can lead to significant errors in converted in-air power. To obtain valid in-air lens power results, measurement conditions must match the material and solution RIs used for the conversion.

Thickness-dependent crystallization on thermal anneal for titania/silica nm-layer composites deposited by ion beam sputter method.

Crystallization following thermal annealing of thin film stacks consisting of alternating nm-thick titania/silica layers was investigated. Several prototypes were designed, featuring a different number of titania/silica layer pairs, and different thicknesses (in the range from 4 to 40 nm, for the titania layers), but the same nominal refractive index (2.09) and optical thickness (a quarter of wavelength at 1064 nm). The prototypes were deposited by ion beam sputtering on silicon substrates. All prototypes were found to be amorphous as-deposited. Thermal annealing in air at progressive temperatures was subsequently performed. It was found that the titania layers eventually crystallized forming the anatase phase, while the silica layers remained always amorphous. However, progressively thinner layers exhibited progressively higher threshold temperatures for crystallization onset. Accordingly it can be expected that composites with thinner layers will be able to sustain higher annealing temperatures without crystallizing, and likely yielding better optical and mechanical properties for advanced coatings application. These results open the way to the use of materials like titania and hafnia, that crystallize easily under thermal anneal, but ARE otherwise promising candidate materials for HR coatings necessary for cryogenic 3rd generation laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors.

Estimation of the Refractive Index of Rigid Contact Lenses on the Basis of Back Vertex Power Measurements

To assess the possibility of estimating the refractive index of rigid contact lenses on the basis of measurements of their back vertex power (BVP) in air and when immersed in liquid. First, a spreadsheet model was used to quantify the magnitude of errors arising from simulated inaccuracies in the variables required to calculate refractive index. Then, refractive index was calculated from in-air and in-liquid measurements of BVP of 21 lenses that had been made in three negative BVPs from materials with seven different nominal refractive index values. The power measurements were made by two operators on two occasions. Intraobserver reliability showed a mean difference of 0.0033±0.0061 (t = 0.544, P = 0.59), interobserver reliability showed a mean difference of 0.0043±0.0061 (t = 0.707, P = 0.48), and the mean difference between the nominal and calculated refractive index values was -0.0010±0.0111 (t = -0.093, P = 0.93). The spreadsheet prediction that low-powered lenses might be subject to greater errors in the calculated values of refractive index was substantiated by the experimental results. This method shows good intra and interobserver reliabilities and can be used easily in a clinical setting to provide an estimate of the refractive index of rigid contact lenses having a BVP of 3 D or more.

The LHCb RICH silica aerogel performance with LHC data

In the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, powerful charged particle identification is performed by Ring Imaging CHerenkov (RICH) technology. In order to cover the full geometric acceptance and the wide momentum range (1–100 GeV/ c), two detectors with three Cherenkov radiators have been designed and installed. In the medium (10–40 GeV/ c) and high (30–100 GeV/ c) momentum ranges, gas radiators are used (C 4F 10 and CF 4, respectively). In the low momentum range (1–10 GeV/ c), pion, kaon and proton separation is performed with solid silica aerogel radiator. A set of 16 tiles, with large transverse dimensions of up to 200 × 200 mm 2 and nominal refractive index 1.03 have been produced and integrated in the detector. These tiles have excellent optical properties and homogeneity of the refractive index at the percent level within the tile. The first data collected at the LHC are used to investigate the behaviour of the RICH; preliminary results of the performance of silica aerogel are presented and discussed.

Validation of a novel technique for the measurement of the refractive index of a prism by means of interlaboratory comparison

A new method to measure the refractive index of glass prism with very low uncertainty was developed at INRiM. The method is based on a modification of the classical minimum deviation method. In order to validate the technique, an interlaboratory comparison between INRiM and two other laboratories started in February 2008. Three prismatic glass samples with nominal refractive index at 633 nm of 1.515 were sent to each participant one by one, the homogeneity of the base glass material used to fabricate the prisms being better than 10 - 6 . Each participant was asked to measure the refractive index of the prism with its own technique at 633 nm at 20 and 23 °C. A brief description of the method developed at INRiM and the evaluated uncertainty is reported together with the first preliminary results of the comparison.

Reconstructing ocular surfaces by Purkinje images: an exact ray approach

A method originally developed for corneal topography (using discrete sources and Zernike polynomials) was extended to estimate the geometry of ocular surfaces internal to the eye. The approach was tested in simulation as a candidate method for phakometry. Purkinje images from the anterior surface of an intra-ocular lens (IOL) (aligned and decentered) were simulated using the Navarro eye. The 'full' Navarro eye and a simplified eye were assumed for recovery purposes. Root mean square (RMS) errors and (anterior) IOL radii of curvatures (best-fit spheres) were estimated. The robustness of the method to axial shifts in lens position (both eye models) along with assumed refractive index (simplified eye only) was tested. When axial shifts were ignored, RMS errors for the full eye were sub-micron (<0.8 microm), and radii of curvature errors were approximately 1 microm. Axial shifting increased these errors linearly. The n = 1.32 error curve (simplified eye) matched the full eye error curves closely (for both RMS error and IOL lens radius), although the RMS error curve exhibited some asymmetry for a decentered IOL. The nominal refractive index (n = 1.3305) was sub-optimal in all cases. The resulting method is a potentially useful way to estimate the geometry of the internal ocular surfaces.

Fabrication of Yb-doped silica glass through the modification of MCVD process

A method to deliver Yb and Al compounds in vapor phase to the reaction/deposition zone has been devised for modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process. By using this MCVD setup, we succeeded to prepare silica glass preforms presenting uniform dopants concentrations in the radial and longitudinal directions with good reproducibility. Preforms with a core diameter larger than 5 mm were easily prepared by depositing around 40 layers. By changing some parameters in the deposition step, such as carrier gases flow and temperatures of Yb(DPM) 3 and AlCl 3 furnaces, different concentrations of Yb and Al were incorporated into the core region of the silica glass preforms. By adjusting the Yb and Al concentrations, we succeeded to prepare preforms for large mode area (LMA) fiber with a change less than 10% of nominal refractive index.

Determining refractive index of single living cell using an integrated microchip

We report a novel method for measuring the effective refractive index (RI) of single living cell using a small integrated chip, which might be an efficient approach for diseases diagnosis. This microchip is able to determine the refractive index of single living cell in real time without any extra cell treatments such as fluorescence labelling, chemical modification and so forth, meanwhile, providing low cost, small size, easy operation and high accuracy. The measurement system integrates an external cavity laser, a microlens, and some microfluidic channels onto a monolithic chip. In the experiments, two standard polystyrene beads with nominal RI are utilized to calibrate the measurement system and five different types of cancerous cells are subsequently measured in the chip. The experimental results show that the refractive indices of the cancerous cells tested ranges from 1.392 to 1.401, which is larger than typical value of normal cell of 1.35–1.37. This integrated chip potentially has a serial of applications on biodefense, disease diagnosis, biomedical and biochemical analysis.

Chromatic dispersions of the ocular media of human eyes

Of the commonly used chromatic dispersion equations, only the Sellmeier and the Cauchy equations seem to be theoretically based. Cauchy's equation is derived from the Sellmeier equation, is simpler to implement, and was found to give an excellent fit to published refractive-index data of the human eye. We used Cauchy's equation to model the chromatic difference in refraction of the Gullstrand number 1 schematic eye with a gradient-index lens. To estimate the dispersion at different refractive-index levels within the lens, a single dispersion equation at one nominal refractive index was linearly scaled. This scaling was justified after exploring the effect of mean refractive index on dispersion by using Sellmeier's equation and finding that a dispersion equation for one wavelength is just a linearly scaled version of the dispersion equation at any other wavlength. Because Cauchy's equation is theoretically based and gives excellent fit to data in the visible spectrum, it can be used to extrapolate results into the near infrared with confidence.

Molecular beam deposition of high quality silicon oxide dielectric films

We report a method for depositing clean, uniform and stable SiOx dielectric films with high control and reproducibility. The technique uses a molecular or chemical beam epitaxy system (MBE or CBE). The technique offers many advantages over the conventional methods such as load lock facility, accurate determination of the flux, low background contamination, in-situ process monitoring tools, and heating, rotation and tilting of the substrate. Rutherford backscattering (RBS) shows that the films deposited without oxygen are stoichiometric, 50% oxygen and 50% Si, irrespective of the deposition rate or temperature. Such SiO films have a resistivity of ≥1013 Ω · and a nominal refractive index of 2 at 632.8 nm. The refractive index can be reduced by introducing a controlled amount of oxygen into the chamber to result in SiOx (x = 1–2) films. The SiO films have uniform density and composition, and are free from voids, or any inclusions of different crystalline or amorphous phases. These SiO films are easy to pattern and their erosion rate is slower than that of SiO2 deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). During 192 h soak in 99°C deionized (DI) water, no moisture absorption was observed in SiO films deposited at a rate of 2 Å/s. Even in films deposited at 11 Å/s, the moisture content after 192 h soak in 99°C DI water was about one third the moisture content of an as-deposited typical PECVD SiO2 film, indicating that the SiO films are highly resistant to moisture absorption and the film quality improves with reducing deposition rate. The insulating, mechanical and optical properties of SiOx films make them suitable for many applications such as surface passivation, mask for processing and facet coating of lasers. The process can be easily integrated with MBE/CBE which would greatly simplify and improve the III–V semiconductor processing. It may also be possible to deposit such dielectric films by CBE using gaseous compound sources