The use of defocussed position of a Ronchi grating for evaluating the refractive index of lens

This report describes a Ronchi-grating shearing interferometric collimation method for determining the refractive index of a lens. A new formula has been deduced for the refractive index of the lens, which is independent of lens parameters. This newly developed device has two lenses. One of them collimates the light from a point source while the other acts as a decollimator. The point source acting as a test target is situated in the front focal plane of the collimator. The test lens is placed inside a glass cell in the back focal plane of the collimator. The Ronchi grating is exactly placed in the back focal plane of the decollimator, and a fringe-free space is observed in the common region. When the test lens is immersed in a liquid cell, it disturbs the focal point and hence interference fringes are observed. The combined system consisting of the test lens and the decollimator is moved to bring the focal point on the Ronchi grating. Thus, the difference between the two settings gives the amount of defocusing.