A new method for measuring refractive index and thickness of liquid and deposited solid thin films

We discuss theoretically a new method to determine the refractive index and the thickness of thin films using them as leaky waveguides. It is shown that the refractive index and the thickness can be determined easily by measuring the propagation constants of two leaky modes of this waveguide by means of synchronous angles. Experimentally we measured the refractive index of 1-bromonaphthalene and methylene iodide. This method is not restricted to special liquid and solid materials.     

Interferometric determination of refraction and dispersion of human blood-serum, saliva, sweat and urine

Multiple-beam interference fringes of equal chromatic order are produced in air and liquid sample interferometric gaps. The two gaps are of the same thickness and simultaneously enclosed in a wedge interferometer. A single shot interferogram containing fringes in the two gaps is sufficient to deduce the needed experimental data. Locations of the fringe maxima, in the two gaps, are introduced in a non-numerical procedure for determining the gap thickness and the liquid-phase refractive indices across the visible spectrum. The method has been used for measuring the phase refractive indices of human blood-serum, saliva, sweat, urine and water liquids. A third-order polynomial dispersion relation is applied for fitting the measured phase indices. Group refractive indices have been derived and fitted to the same dispersion formula.     

Liquid refraction and dispersion measurements by multiple-beam white-light Newton's fringes

Multiple-beam white-light Newton's fringes in transmission are produced in a Newton's interferometer containing a liquid sample and followed with a grating spectrograph. An equation describing the shape of the formed interference fringes is derived. A simple procedure is introduced for analyzing the resulting interference fringes. This enables the determination of both: the liquid refractive index, the fringe order of interference and the thickness at the point of contact. Errors of the measured liquid refractive index are discussed. The method is used for measuring the refraction and dispersion of glycerin, dimethylformamide (DMF) and water across the visible spectrum. The method is a single-shot, static, material-economic and low-cost interferometric one.     

光谱型椭偏仪对各向异性液晶层的测量

探讨了利用普通光谱型椭偏仪对各向异性液晶层进行综合性测量的可行性. 并利用法国Jobin Yvon公司的UVISEL SPME(Spectroscopic Phase Modulated Ellipsometer)光谱型椭偏仪测量了光学各向异性液晶层的折射率n_o和n_e及液晶层厚d，进一步利用椭偏仪在透射方式下测量了平行排列液晶层的光延迟特性Δnd，二者取得了很好的一致性，说明利用光谱型椭偏仪可以实现对光学单轴性液晶层及其他材料的测量，测厚精度为纳米量级. 关键词： 光谱型椭偏仪 各向异性 折射率 相位延迟     

利用劈尖的等厚干涉测量液体的折射率

利用劈尖的等厚干涉测量了不同液体的折射率。在不改变劈尖夹角前提下,通过读数显微镜,分别得到劈尖在空气和液体中的干涉条纹间距ΔX_空、ΔX_液,从而运用n=ΔX_空/ΔX_液得到各液体的折射率。通过本实验,丰富了折射率测量的方式。     

Interferometric determination of refraction and dispersion of a birefringent material: numerical procedure

Air, liquid and solid sample interferometric gaps of the same thickness and simultaneously enclosed in a wedge interferometer are used to produce fringes of equal chromatic order. A mica sample of dimensions 2×5 mm² and an immersion liquid of the same refractive index are used. A single shot interferogram containing fringes in the three gaps is sufficient to deduce the needed experimental data. Locations of fringe maxima are introduced in a numerical procedure to retrieve the sample and liquid refractive indices across the visible spectrum. The numerical procedure is based on a simple dispersion function of wavelength and wavenumber. A modified two-term Sellmeier dispersion formula has been used for fitting the experimental data and deducing the needed dispersion parameters.     

Single-mode fibre coupler as refractometer sensor

We report a simple, non-intrusive fibre-optic refractometer sensor for measuring the refractive index of liquid and optically transparent solid medium. Sensing principle of the proposed sensor is based on monitoring the back-reflected light signal through the second input port of a 2 × 1 single-mode fibre coupler when light signal from the output port is focussed at the interface of air and a liquid or solid medium and back-reflected exactly along the same path. Depending on the refractive index of the medium, the amount of back-reflected intensity would vary and in the present work we exploit this principle to measure the refractive index of an optically transparent medium. Variation of refractive index as small as 0.001 RIU can be measured with our proposed sensor.     

Local plasmon sensor with gold colloid monolayers deposited upon glass substrates

A new optical sensor that uses local plasmon resonance is proposed. A peak that is due to the local plasmon resonance appears in the absorption spectrum of a gold colloid suspension in the visible region, and its height and wavelength depend on the refractive index of the suspension. These properties are used for optical sensors. We used gold colloid monolayers in which colloidal gold particles a few tens of nanometers in diameter were immobilized upon a glass slide by a functional organic coupling agent. We measured the absorption spectra of the the gold colloid monolayers, which were immersed in liquid samples or coated with thin films. We observed increases of both the resonance wavelength and the absorbance as the refractive indices of the sample liquids or the thickness of the coated films increased. The proportional constants of the resonance wavelength to the film thickness were 3.6 and 5.7 for a 13.9- and a 20.2-nm gold colloid monolayer, respectively.     

Zygo interferometer for measuring refractive index of photorefractive bismuth silicon oxide (Bi12SiO20) crystal

An application of the Zygo system for measuring the refractive index of optical materials such as bismuth silicon oxide (BSO) having a higher value of the refractive index than that of glass is presented. The setting accuracy is found to be of the order of 1 μm in the Zygo phase measuring interferometer. The mean value of refractive index of BSO crystal measured by the interferometer for several samples of thickness in the range of 3–9 mm is 2.542 at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. The accuracy of measurement is ±0.002. It is possible to achieve an accuracy of ±0.0003 for a sample of thickness of 30 mm in the measurement of refractive index due to high setting accuracy of the Zygo system.     

High precision refractometry based on Fresnel diffraction from phase plates

When a transparent plane-parallel plate is illuminated at a boundary region by a monochromatic parallel beam of light, Fresnel diffraction occurs because of the abrupt change in phase imposed by the finite change in refractive index at the plate boundary. The visibility of the diffraction fringes varies periodically with changes in incident angle. The visibility period depends on the plate thickness and the refractive indices of the plate and the surrounding medium. Plotting the phase change versus incident angle or counting the visibility repetition in an incident-angle interval provides, for a given plate thickness, the refractive index of the plate very accurately. It is shown here that the refractive index of a plate can be determined without knowing the plate thickness. Therefore, the technique can be utilized for measuring plate thickness with high precision. In addition, by installing a plate with known refractive index in a rectangular cell filled with a liquid and following the described procedures, the refractive index of the liquid is obtained. The technique is applied to measure the refractive indices of a glass slide, distilled water, and ethanol. The potential and merits of the technique are also discussed.     

太赫兹脉冲光谱法测量微米级多层油漆涂层厚度技术

在汽车工业、飞机、船舶等领域中,油漆的涂层厚度管理对产品防水、防锈功能和颜色效果有着重要影响,但是目前采用的商业化涂层测厚仪都是接触式,并且很难直接获得多层涂层中的各层厚度。利用反射式太赫兹时域光谱(THz-TDS)系统探测样品的太赫兹脉冲光谱,基于脉冲回波的飞行时间建立简易的单点漆膜厚度提取模型。并通过最小二乘法拟合油漆样品的光学厚度与几何厚度之间的线性关系计算出12种涂覆在铝板上的油漆样品的测量折射率,发现金属油漆与非金属油漆在太赫兹波段的折射率存在较大的差异,闪光银色油漆样品的测量折射率为5.15,而白色油漆样品的测量折射率仅为2.64。在单层白色油漆样品厚度分布均匀的区域内测量50个点的膜厚,以磁/涡流感应涂层测厚仪的测量数据为参考标准,得到的厚度平均值为71.7 μm,测量误差为3.5 μm。对双层油漆样品进行二维扫描,测得白色油漆和底漆的厚度分布分别是(233±13)和(130±11) μm。同样,通过黑色三层油漆样品和银色三层油漆样品的二维分布图,分析了各层的漆膜厚度及其分布的均匀性。结果表明,太赫兹脉冲光谱法实现了1～3层漆膜的厚度测量及其分布均匀性评估,该方法对金属油漆的厚度分辨力较高,并且可通过非接触探测样品的太赫兹脉冲光谱,获得多层油漆的各层厚度及厚度的二维分布信息,易于实现喷涂质量的评估。     

A high-precision measurement technique for evaluating alcohol concentrations using an optical metrology system based on a position sensing detector

This study develops a high-precision, non-destructive optical metrology system based on a position sensing detector for measuring the refractive index of a liquid solution such that its alcohol concentration can be derived. A series of experiments are performed to measure the refractive indices of samples of known alcohol concentrations in the range 0–99.5%. The experimental results indicate that the refractive index and the alcohol concentration are related by a quadratic function. According to this mathematical function, the refractive index of a sample with an alcohol concentration of 95% is n_95%=1.36442. The measured value of the refractive index of the same sample is found to be n_alcohol-95%=1.36587. The deviation of just 0.00145 between the two sets of results confirms the accuracy of the analytical prediction method. For a sample with a known alcohol concentration of 37%, the error between the analytically predicted concentration value and the actual value is found to be less than 0.7%. Overall, the results confirm that the proposed system provides a low-cost, straightforward and highly precise approach for measuring the alcohol concentration of liquid samples.     

Optical constants of thin oxide films on titanium

Thin oxide films on titanium formed by heating were studied by the ellipsometric method. To obtain the complex refractive index and film thicknesses, the ellipsometric measurements were performed by means of the immersing method: each sample was measured first in air and then in a liquid of known refractive index (in our case CCl₄). The optical constants and the oxide film thickness were computed by means of a computer from two pairs of ellipsometric values. To state the optical constants of clean titanium surface the graphic-computational method was proposed and applied. The measurements were carried out at two wavelengths on oxide films grown in air and dry oxygen by thermal oxidation at temperatures from 150 to 700 °C. It has been shown that when increasing the film thickness the refractive index of the film decreases, whereas the absorption coefficient is independent on the film thickness. Optical constants of oxide films growing in dry oxygen are smaller than those growing in air.     

薄透明体厚度及折射率的测量

介绍了测量薄透明体厚度及折射率的一种方法.     

薄透明体厚度及折射率的测量

本文介绍了测量薄透明体厚度及折射率的一种方法。     

Interferometric determination of refraction and dispersion of a birefringent material: non-numerical procedure

Fringes of equal chromatic order are produced in air, immersion liquid and mica sample interferometric gaps. The three gaps are of the same thickness and simultaneously enclosed in a wedge interferometer. A single-shot interferogram contains fringes in the three gaps is sufficient to deduce the needed experimental data. A non-numerical procedure is used for determining the refractive indices of the immersion liquid and mica sample across the visible spectrum. There is no need for any numerical fitting stage nor for the application of any theoretical model concerning the dispersion behavior of the sample under test. A modified two-term Sellmeier dispersion formula has been used for fitting the experimental data and deducing the needed dispersion parameters.     

LFI法测量半透明油的折射率

LFI方法曾被用来测量大直径光纤的折射率.用一半盛油一半为空气的毛细管代替光纤,并用聚焦的条形光束照射毛细管,空气与油的干涉条纹同时产生.根据空气的条纹可以确定参数b,根据一组已知折射率的标准样品可确定另一参数c,同时可以建立标准液体最外条纹的偏折角与折射率的标准曲线.对于未知折射率的样品,一旦测量出其最外条纹的偏折角,从标准曲线上就可以读出其折射率.实测了一组半透明油的折射率,其结果与阿贝折射仪测量结果接近.     

High-resolution liquid refractive-index sensor using reflective arrayed-waveguide grating

A high-resolution sensor for measuring the refractive index of liquids using a reflective arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) is proposed. The refractive index of a liquid placed in the groove of the arrayed region is measured via the shift of the maximum intensity in the imaging plane of the AWG owing to the phase change in the region. The refractive index can be monitored in real time by measuring the power ratio between two output waveguides of the AWG with a narrow-band source. A mathematical model based on Fourier optics and wave optics is established. A fitting formula for the relationship between the power ratio and the refractive index of liquid is derived. The results of the study show that the proposed method can eliminate the effects of instability of the light source and the inner loss of the system and provide a refractive index resolution of 10⁻⁷.     

Low-coherence tandem interferometer for measurement of group refractive index without knowledge of the thickness of the test sample

A new low-coherence interferometric technique is proposed for measuring the group refractive indices of dispersive samples with high accuracy. A tandem configuration of interferometers is used to compensate for the asymmetrical distortion of interferograms that results from the broad spectrum of the light source. The group refractive index can be measured without knowledge of the geometrical thickness of the sample under test. The proposed technique can successfully measure even a thick sample. Computer calculations have shown the effectiveness of the proposed technique, which was verified by preliminary experiments; the difference between the experimental result and the catalog data was 7 x 10(-4).     

膜厚对射频磁控溅射法制备的SnS薄膜结构和光学性质的影响

利用射频磁控溅射法在玻璃衬底上制备SnS薄膜,用X射线衍射(XRD)、能谱仪(EDS)、原子力显微镜(AFM)、场发射扫描电镜(FE-SEM)和紫外-可见-近红外分光光度计(UV-Vis-NIR)分别对所制备的薄膜晶体结构、组分、表面形貌、厚度、反射率和透过率进行表征分析。研究结果表明:薄膜厚度的增加有利于改善薄膜的结晶质量和组分配比,晶粒尺寸和颗粒尺寸随着厚度的增加而变大。样品的折射率在1 500~2 500 nm波长范围内随着薄膜厚度的增加而增大。样品在可见光区域吸收强烈,吸收系数达10⁵ cm^-1量级。禁带宽度在薄膜厚度增加到1 042 nm时为1.57 eV,接近于太阳电池材料的的最佳光学带隙(1.5 eV)。