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Measurement of the refractive index of liquid using

laser beam displacement

Shojiro Nemoto

A simple method for measuring the refractive index of liquid is presented. When a laser beam impinges
obliquely on a rectangular cell filled with liquid and passes through the cell, the propagation axis of the
transmitted beam is displaced from that of the incident beam. By measuring the displacement, we can
determine the refractive index of the liquid. Beams of a He-Ne laser and a laser diode were used for
measuring the refractive indices of pure water and some organic liquids.
Key words: Refractive index of liquid, laser beam displacement.

Introduction calculate the refractive index of liquid without know-


The refractive index of liquid has been measured by ing the cell parameters. In addition, there is no
various methods. It can be determined from the restriction on the wavelength; both visible and invisi-
minimum angle of deviation- 3 of a light beam that ble beams can be employed because the beam axis is
passes through the liquid contained in a triangular determined by the knife-edge scanning method. The
cell. This method is limited to visible light, because present scheme is considered an extension of the
we should use a telescope or our eyes to locate a point method that was employed to measure the refractive
at which the refracted beam changes its direction. index of a dielectric plate.' 0
The same situation arises when one uses an Abbe
refractometer. 4 The index is also determined from Principle
the critical angle at the boundary between the liquid Consider a rectangular cell whose wall has thickness
and the prism. 5' 6 Other methods are based on the d, and refractive index n as shown in Fig. 1(a). The
measurement of deflection angle of a beam that separation between the walls is d2 , and the cell placed
passes through the liquid that fills a V-shaped groove in the air with index no contains the liquid with index
in a prism, 5 or a wedge formed by two plates. 7 -9 In n2 . When a laser beam impinges on the cell at
these methods, the refractive index of the prism or incident angle 0, the axis of an emerging beam is
plate should be known accurately for the wavelength. displaced by from that of the incident beam as
We present a new method that does not require a shown in Fig. 1(b). Let 81 and 2 be the beam-axis
triangular cell, prism, or wedge. In this method, a displacements caused by the cell wall and liquid,
laser beam impinges obliquely on a rectangular cell respectively. Then it is easy to show that
that is filled with the liquid to be measured and passes
through the cell. The propagation axis of the trans- bi = di/(sin 0 + cos 0/tan hi), (1)
mitted beam is displaced from that of the incident
beam. The displacement depends on the refractive = 0 - sin-[(n0 /ni)sin 0], i = 1, 2, (2)
index of the cell and its wall thickness. To eliminate
the contribution of these cell parameters, we measure where +1 and +2 are the angles shown in Fig. 1(b).
the displacement in two cases: when the cell is Equation (1) is rewritten as (see Appendix A)
empty and when it is filled with the liquid. By taking 8i = dil - no cos 0/(n, 2 - n0 2 sin 2 0)1/ 2 ]sin 0. (3)
the difference between the two displacements, we can
The total displacement (no, n, n2 ) = 28 + 82 is
given by
The author is with the Institute of Materials Science, University
of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennohdai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan. 8(no, n, n2 )
Received 3 November 1991.
= 2d,[1 - no cos 0/(n12 - n 2
sin 2 )1/2]
0003-6935/92/316690-05$05.00/0.
© 1992 Optical Society of America. n 2 sin2
± d2E1 - n10 cos 0/(7122 nl 0)11 2 ]sin 0. (4)
6690 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 31, No. 31 / 1 November 1992
0.7

0.6

Is 0.5

'1 0.4

0.3

0.2-20
15-
0.1 l 1.2
1. 1.6 1.8 210- 2.2
5-

Fig. 1. (a) Rectangular cell; (b) displacement of the beam axis that
is due to the refraction by liquid and the cell walls. n2 /no

Fig. 2. Dependence of A/d 2 on n2 /no for various values of incident


By measuring 8 for a fixed 0, we can obtain the value angle 0.
of n2 from Eq. (4). In this process, however, we
should know the value of n1 . To eliminate the
contribution of n, to 8, we consider the following of fused quartz with d, = 1.35 mm, d2 = 10.00 mm,
quantity: and an inner width and height of 20.0 mm x 43.9 mm
was used. An unpolarized He-Ne laser beam of
A _ 8(no, n 1, n2) - 8(no, n 1, no). (5) 632.8 nm (-2 mW, Spectra-Physics Model 145)
impinges on the cell at a fixed 0. To determine the
The second term is the displacement for n2 = no, position of beam axis, we scan the transmitted beam
namely, for an empty cell. From Eqs. (4) and (5) it transversely by a knife edge (razor blade). It is
follows that noted that the axis of a laser beam may also be
2 determined by a charge injection device and a beam
A = d 2[1 - no cos 0/(n 22 - n02 sin 2 0)1/ ]sin 0, (6)
analyzer." First, the variation of photocurrent I
with knife-edge position x was measured for the beam
which gives that passes through an empty cell. After this, the
2
n2 = nol + [cos 0/(sin 0 - A/d 2 )] 1/2sin 0. (7) cell was filled with the liquid, and I versus x data were
again collected. For each I-versus-x datum, the spot
Note that this equation does not contain both d, and size (le intensity radius) s and the beam-axis posi-
n1 . Hence, by measuring A for a fixed 0, we can tion x0 were determined by the least-squares method
described in Appendix B. Let x01 and x02 be the
obtain the value of n2 without knowing the cell determined positions of the beam axes when the beam
parameters d, and n1. It is verified that, for 00 _ passes through the empty and filled cells, respectively.
0 < 90°, the total reflection does not occur at the four Then we have A = Ix01 - x02 1. The temperature of
boundaries in Fig. 1(b) when no < n, _ n2 or no •< the liquid was measured before and after the experi-
n2 < n1. In addition, we can show that A < d2 and
A - d2 when 0 - 900. For accurate measurement of
n2, it is desirable that A varies with n2 as much as 0.7 - ~~~10
643
possible. Figure 2 shows how Aid2 depends on 0.7 ~~~~~~~~~2.5
2
n2 /no, and Fig. 3 shows its dependence on 0. From 0.6 1.8
the derivative 1.6
0.5 i~~~~~~~~.5
1.4
a(A/d 2 )/a(n 2 /no)
0.4 -1.25
= (n 2 /no)sin 0 cos 0/[(n 2 /n0 )
2
- sin2 0]3/2, (8) 1.2
0.3 - 1.15
we have a(Aid 2 )id(n2 ino) = 0.325 for n2 /no = 1.300
and 0 = 30°. Hence, when n 2/no changes by 0.001 l oinietageffovaiuve1.1
0.2 Fig. 3Deedneo
from 1.300, A/d 2 changes by 0.0003, which implies 1.05
0.1
that the variation of Ais 0.003 mm for d2 = 10 mm.
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Measurement and Results
Figure 4 shows the experimental configuration that Fig. 3. Dependence of Aid 2 on incident angle 0 for various values
was used for measuring beam displacement. A cell of n2lno.

1 November 1992 / Vol. 31, No. 31 / APPLIED OPTICS 6691


cell photodiode Table 1. Measured Refractive Indices of Some Liquids at 632.8 nm

Pure Water Acetone Cyclohexane


laser A/?l 0(0) A(mm) n2 A(mm) n2 A(mm) n2
knife edge 10 0.440 1.3304 0.448 1.3385 0.527 1.4245
x 20 0.930 1.3352 0.948 1.3443 1.105 1.4297
Fig. 4. Experimental configuration that was used for measuring 30 1.499 1.3341 1.523 1.3420 1.784 1.4363
the beam displacement. 10 0.436 1.3264 0.476 1.3678 0.526 1.4234
20 0.919 1.3297 1.002 1.3724 1.108 1.4315
30 1.499 1.3341 1.568 1.3572 1.763 1.4281
10 0.438 1.3284 0.485 1.3775 0.538 1.4374
ment by a mercurial thermometer and was constant 20 0.921 1.3307 0.982 1.3618 1.101 1.4274
to within approximately ± 0.10C. 30 1.502 1.3351 1.575 1.3596 1.740 1.4193
Figure 5 shows an example of the knife-edge scan- Average 1.33156a 1.35790b 1.42862c
ning data for pure water whose electric conductivity Ref. 5 1.33128d 1.35563d 1.42274d
is < 0.2 [LS/cm. The upper and lower parts of the
figure show the data for the beams that pass through Liquid temperature (C): a26.7, b2 8 .7 , c25.3, d2 5 .
the empty and filled cells, respectively. When 0 =
300, we obtain A = 1.499 mm, and from Eq. (7) it
follows that n2 = 1.3341. Similarly, when 0 = 100
and 200, we have A = 0.436 and 0.919 mm, respec- One formula for nw at t (0) and 632.8 nm is' 2
tively, and n2 = 1.3264 and 1.3297. Incidentally, for
0 = 00, 100, 20°, and 300, the determined spot sizes are n = 1.332156 - [8.889(t - 20)
s = 213.0, 221.3, 213.1, and 222.1 Lm (average of + 0.1610(t - 20)2] x 0-5,
217.4 gim) for the beam that passes through the (9)
empty cell, ands = 210.3, 211.1,206.9, and 214.5 m which gives n = 1.33149 at t = 26.700. Another
(average of 210.7 m) for the beam that passes formula for n at T (K) (275 < T < 300) and 632.8
through the filled cell. nm is'
Table 1 lists the measured refractive indices of
some liquids along with the values of A. The average nw = 1.1457 + 0.1365 x 10-2T - 0.2486 x 10- 5 T 2 ,
value of n2 is compared with the refractive index
reported in Ref. 5. We see fairly good agreement (10)
between the two results. Some formulas have been which gives n = 1.33148 at T = 273.15 + 26.7 =
reported for the refractive index n of pure water. 299.85 K. These values of n are close to 1.33156 in
Table 1.
To determine whether the present method is appli-
cable to invisible light, a laser diode with 785-nm peak
wavelength was used. The diode (Sharp LT022MCO)
with 80-mA driving current emits an 1-mW beam.
Io The experimental configuration is the same as that of
Fig. 4 except that a microscope objective (x20) is
placed just behind the diode to obtain a collimated
beam. The junction plane of the diode was set
parallel to the plane including the beam axis and
the knife-edge scanning direction to have a narrower
beamwidth than that in the plane perpendicular to .
Figure 6 shows the knife-edge scanning data for
measuring the index of pure water at 26.7°C. We see
that the slopes of the I/Io versus x curves are much
smaller than those in Fig. 5, which implies that the
spot sizes are much larger than those in Fig. 5 (the
determined spot size is 1220 m for the beam that
passes through the filled cell). In Fig. 6 we have A =
0.437, 0.911, and 1.480 mm for 0 = 100, 200, and 300,
respectively, and n2 = 1.3274, 1.3257, and 1.3279
X(mm) (average of 1.32700). Table 2 shows the measured
Fig. 5. Variation of normalized photocurrent IIIo with knife-edge indices of some liquids along with those calculated
position x for several values of incident angle 0. A 632.8-nm from a single-term Sellmeier equation. Using the
He-Ne laser beam was used. The solid curves were obtained from data of Tilton and Taylor listed in Table II of Ref. 5
the least-squares method. and the least-squares method, we have, for n at

6692 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 31, No. 31 / 1 November 1992


I n 2. In fact, if A = 1.498 or 1.500 mm, we obtain n2 =
empty o: 00
1.3337 or 1.3344 from Eq. (7).
The effect of the error in angular setting is evalu-
0 ated from
0. .5 w o : 0 =300
0 /~~~~~~9. 0 an 2 /0 = -(A/d2 )[1 - (A/d2 )sin 0
1&=1.480mm + (sin 0 - A/d2 )2 ]cos 0 x (sin 0 - A/d 2)-2
l
os I
I-3.036
11/ / I 1 x [(sin 0 - Aid 2) 2 + cos2 0]-1/2,
2 3 4 5 (mm) 6
.le
(14)
l
il

which gives n 2 /l0 = -1.1878 for 0 = 300 and A =


I 1.499 mm. Hence the error 0.10 = 1.745 x 10-3 rad
10
in 0 causes the error of 0.0021 in n2 . Since this
0.5 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I . error is somewhat large, the angular setting of the
cell is important. To find the angular position for
which 0 = 0°, the following steps were taken. First,
i 4.51 6 the cell was removed and the beam was scanned
r
5 (mm) 6
transversely by a slit with a photodiode. The slit was
.2 3 4
fixed at the position that gives the maximum photocur-
Fig. 6. Variation of normalized photocurrent Io with knife-edge rent. Second, the cell filled with a liquid was in-
position x for several values of incident angle 0. A beam emitted serted and rotated until the current took another
from a laser'diode with 785-nm peak wavelength was used. The maximum. This position of the cell corresponds to
solid curves were obtained from the least-squares method. 0 = 0, because no displacement of the beam is
introduced.
(nm) and 250 C,
Conclusion
n,2 = 1 + 0.75260 X2/(X2 - 10212.8), (11)
A new and simple method for measuring the refrac-
which gives no = 1.32864 for X= 785 nm. Similarly, tive index of liquid has been presented. In this
0
we obtain a formula for the index ne of ethanol at 20 C method we determined the position of the axis of a
by using the data listed in Table III of Ref. 5: laser beam that passes obliquely through a rectangu-
lar cell in two cases: when the cell is empty and
ne2 = 1 + 0.82998 X2/(X 2 - 9740.5), (12) when it is filled with a liquid. By taking the differ-
ence between the two positions, we can obtain the
which gives ne = 1.35769 for X= 785 nm. refractive index of liquid regardless of the cell param-
eters. Since the beam axis is determined by the
Discussion knife-edge scanning method, both visible and invisi-
Here we examine how the error in the measured ble beams can be used. Another merit is that the
value of A affects the determination of n2 . Consider apparatus does not take much space because the
the experimental data shown in Fig. 5. When 0 = beam does not change its direction after it passes
30°, we obtained A = 1.499 mm and n2 = 1.3341. through the cell.
It follows from Eq. (7) that
Appendix A: Derivation of Eq. (3)
an2/dA = (no/d 2 )sin 0 cos 2 0(sin 0 - A/d 2 )- 2
By defining Oi = sin-'[(no/ni)sin 0], we can write tan
x [(sin 0 - Aid 2 )2 + cos2 0]-1/2, (13) bi as

which gives n2 /daA = 0.3275 mm-'. Hence the (sin 0 cos Oi - cos 0 sin 0j)
error 0.001 mm in A causes the error of - 0.0003 in tan 'i =(cos 0 cos 0i + sin 0 sin ) (Al)

Table 2. Measured Refractive Indices of Some Liquids at 785 nm and Substitution of relations
Those Calculated from a Single-Term Sellmeier Equation
sin Oi = (n 0 /ni)sin 0, cos Oi = [1 - (n 0 /ni)2 sin2 0]1/2
0(0) Pure Water Acetone Ethanol Cyclohexane
(A2)
10 1.3274 1.3540 1.3572 1.4142
20 1.3257 1.3571 1.3582 1.4153 into Eq. (Al) yields
30 1.3279 1.3504 1.3578 1.4162
tan Al = [(n, - no cos 0)/(n, cos 0 + no sin 2 0)]sin 0,
Average 1.32700a 1 .3 5 3 83b 1.35773c 1 .4 1 5 2 3d
Calculated 1.32864e 1.35267e 1.35769f 1.42153f (A3)

Liquid temperature (oC): a26.7, b26 .2 , c18.2, d2 1 .6 , e25, f20. where n, = (n,2 - n0
2
sin2 0)1/2. With the use of Eq.

1 November 1992 / Vol. 31, No. 31 / APPLIED OPTICS 6693


(A3), the denominator on the right-hand side of Eq. This expression for I/Io was used in the least-squares
(1) is written as method, where the values of s and xo that minimize
the sum of squared residuals were searched. The
sin 0 + cos 0/tan hi = n,/[(n, - no cos 0)sin 0]. increment of s was set to 0.1 lm and that of xo was set
(A4) to 0.001 mm.
Substitution of Eq. (A4) along with n into Eq. (1) The author thanks Akira Yamasaki, Masaharu
gives Eq. (3). Imai, and Tatsuya Mori for their help with the
experiment.
Appendix B: Expression for the Normalized
Photocurrent
References
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6694 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 31, No. 31 / 1 November 1992

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