List of refractive indices

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Refraction at interface Refraction at interface.svg
Refraction at interface

Many materials have a well-characterized refractive index, but these indices often depend strongly upon the frequency of light, causing optical dispersion. Standard refractive index measurements are taken at the "yellow doublet" sodium D line, with a wavelength (λ) of 589 nanometers.

Contents

There are also weaker dependencies on temperature, pressure/stress, etc., as well on precise material compositions (presence of dopants, etc.); for many materials and typical conditions, however, these variations are at the percent level or less. Thus, it's especially important to cite the source for an index measurement if precision is required.

In general, an index of refraction is a complex number with both a real and imaginary part, where the latter indicates the strength of absorption loss at a particular wavelength—thus, the imaginary part is sometimes called the extinction coefficient . Such losses become particularly significant, for example, in metals at short (e.g. visible) wavelengths, and must be included in any description of the refractive index.

Refraction, critical angle and total internal reflection of light at the interface between two media. RefractionReflextion.svg
Refraction, critical angle and total internal reflection of light at the interface between two media.

List

Some representative refractive indices
Name of materialλ (nm)Refractive index no. nReference
Vacuum 1 (by definition)
Air at STP 1.000273[ citation needed ]
Gases at 0 °C and 1 atm
Air 589.291.000293 [1]
Carbon dioxide 589.291.00045 [2] [3] [4]
Helium 589.291.000036 [1]
Hydrogen 589.291.000132 [1]
Liquids at 20 °C
Arsenic trisulfide and sulfur in methylene iodide 1.9 [5]
Carbon disulfide 589.291.628 [1]
Benzene 589.291.501 [1]
Carbon tetrachloride 589.291.461 [1]
Silicone oil (nD25)589.291.393–1.403 [6]
Kerosene 1.39
Ethanol (ethyl alcohol)589.291.361 [1]
Acetone 1.36
Water 589.291.333 [1]
10% glucose solution in water589.291.3477 [7]
20% glucose solution in water589.291.3635 [7]
60% glucose solution in water589.291.4394 [7]
Solids at room temperature
Silicon carbide (moissanite; 6H form)589.292.65 [8]
Titanium dioxide (rutile phase)589.292.614 [9] [10]
Diamond 589.292.417 [1]
Strontium titanate 589.292.41 [11]
Tantalum pentoxide 589.292.15 [12]
Amber 589.291.55 [1]
Sodium chloride 589.291.544 [13]
Fused silica (a pure form of glass, also called fused quartz)589.291.458 [1] [14]
Other materials
Liquid helium 1.025
Perfluorohexane (Fluorinert FC-72)1.251 [15]
Water ice1.31
TFE/PDD (Teflon AF)1.315 [16] [17]
Cryolite 1.338
Cytop1.34 [18]
Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon)1.35–1.38 [19]
Sugar solution, 25%1.3723 [20]
Cornea (human)1.373/1.380/1.401 [21]
Lens (human)1.386–1.406
Liver (human)9641.369 [22]
Intestinal mucosa (human)9641.329–1.338 [23]
Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE)1.403 [24]
Sylgard 184 (polydimethylsiloxane)1.4118 [25]
Sugar solution, 50%1.4200 [20]
Polylactic acid 1.46 [26]
Pyrex (a borosilicate glass)1.470 [27]
Vegetable oil 1.47 [28]
Glycerol 1.4729
Sugar solution, 75%1.4774 [20]
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)1.4893–1.4899
Halite (rock salt)1.516
Plate glass (window glass)1.52

[29]

Crown glass (pure) 1.50–1.54
PETg1.57
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)1.5750
Polycarbonate 1501.60 [30]
Crown glass (impure) 1.485–1.755
Flint glass (pure) 1.60–1.62
Bromine 1.661
Flint glass (impure) 1.523–1.925
Sapphire 1.762–1.778
Boron nitride 2–2.14 [31]
Cubic zirconia 2.15–2.18 [32]
Potassium niobate (KNbO3)2.28
Zinc oxide 3902.4
Cinnabar (mercury sulfide)3.02Birefringent: nω = 2.905 nε = 3.256 [33]
Silicon 1200 - 85003.42–3.48 [34]
Gallium(III) phosphide 3.5
Gallium(III) arsenide 3.927
Germanium 3000 - 160004.05–4.1 [35]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Zajac, Alfred; Hecht, Eugene (18 March 2003). Optics, Fourth Edit. Pearson Higher Education. ISBN   978-0-321-18878-6.
  2. ↑ Morgan, Joseph (1953). Introduction to Geometrical and Physical Optics . McGraw-Hill Book Company, INC.
  3. ↑ Hodgman, Charles D. (1957). Handbook of Chemistry and Physics . Chemical Rubber Publishing Co.
  4. ↑ Pedrotti, Frank L.; Pedrotti, Leno M.; Pedrotti, Leno S. (2007). Introduction to Optics, Third Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 221. ISBN   978-0-13-149933-1.
  5. ↑ Meyrowitz, R, A compilation and classification of immersion media of high index of refraction, American Mineralogist 40: 398 (1955)
  6. ↑ "Silicone Fluids: Stable and Inert Media" (PDF). Gelest, Inc. 1998.
  7. 1 2 3 Lide, David R. Lide, ed. (2001). CRC Handbook of Physics and Chemistry (82nd ed.). Cleveland, OH: The Chemical Rubber Company. ISBN   978-0-8493-0482-8.
  8. ↑ "Silicon Carbide (SiC) - Optical properties". Ioffe Institute. Retrieved 6 June 2009.
  9. ↑ Polyanskiy, Mikhail N. "Optical constants of TiO2 (Titanium dioxide)". Refractive Index Database.
  10. ↑ Shannon, Robert D.; Shannon, Ruth C.; Medenbach, Olaf; Fischer, Reinhard X. (25 October 2002). "Refractive Index and Dispersion of Fluorides and Oxides". J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data. 31 (4): 931–970. Bibcode:2002JPCRD..31..931S. doi:10.1063/1.1497384.
  11. ↑ Frye, Asa; French, R. H.; Bonnell, D. A. (2003). "Optical properties and electronic structure of oxidized and reduced single-crystal strontium titanate" (PDF). Zeitschrift für Metallkunde. 94 (3): 226. doi:10.3139/146.030226. S2CID   11729057 . Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  12. ↑ Polyanskiy, Mikhail (2018). "Optical constants of Ta2O5 (Tantalum pentoxide)". Refractive Index Database.
  13. ↑ Serway, Raymond A.; Faughn, Jerry S. (2003). College Physics, 6th Edition. Brooks/Cole. p. 692. ISBN   978-0-03-035114-3.
  14. ↑ Tan, G; Lemon, M.; Jones, D.; French, R. (2005). "Optical properties and London dispersion interaction of amorphous and crystalline {SiO2} determined by vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry" (PDF). Physical Review B. 72 (20): 205117. Bibcode:2005PhRvB..72t5117T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.72.205117 . Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  15. ↑ "Fluorinert Electronic Liquid FC-72 Product Information" (PDF). Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  16. ↑ "Teflon AF" . Retrieved 14 October 2010.
  17. ↑ Yang, Min K. (July 2008). "Optical properties of Teflon® {AF} amorphous fluoropolymers" (PDF). Journal of Micro/Nano Lithography. 7 (3): 033010. doi:10.1117/1.2965541 . Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  18. ↑ "CYTOP Amorphous Fluoropolymer". AGCCE Chemicals Europe, Ltd. Archived from the original on 24 August 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
  19. ↑ French, Roger H.; Rodriguez-Parada, J. M.; Yang, M. K.; et al. (2009). "Optical properties of materials for concentrator photovoltaic systems". 2009 34th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) (PDF). pp. 000394–000399. doi:10.1109/PVSC.2009.5411657. ISBN   978-1-4244-2949-3. S2CID   14598733 . Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  20. 1 2 3 "Manual for Sugar Solution Prism" (PDF). A/S S. Frederiksen. 3 August 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  21. ↑ Patel, S; Marshall, J; Fitzke, FW 3rd. (March–April 1995). "Refractive index of the human corneal epithelium and stroma". J Refract Surg. 11 (2): 100–105. doi:10.3928/1081-597X-19950301-09. PMID   7634138.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. ↑ Giannios, P; et, al (2016). "Visible to near-infrared refractive properties of freshly-excised human-liver tissues: marking hepatic malignancies". Sci. Rep. 6: 27910. Bibcode:2016NatSR...627910G. doi:10.1038/srep27910. PMC   4906272 . PMID   27297034.
  23. ↑ Giannios, P; al, et (2016). "Complex refractive index of normal and malignant human colorectal tissue". J. Biophotonics. 10 (2): 303–310. doi:10.1002/jbio.201600001. PMID   27091794. S2CID   9636490.
  24. ↑ Wright, S.F.; Zadrazil, I.; Markides, C.N. (2017). "A review of solid–fluid selection options for optical-based measurements in single-phase liquid, two-phase liquid–liquid and multiphase solid–liquid flows". Experiments in Fluids. 58 (9): 108. Bibcode:2017ExFl...58..108W. doi: 10.1007/s00348-017-2386-y . hdl: 10044/1/49407 .
  25. ↑ "184 Silicone Elastomer" (PDF) (Product Information). Dow Corning. Retrieved 11 December 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  26. ↑ Gonçalves, Carla M. B.; Coutinho, Joa˜o A. P.; Marrucho, Isabel M. (2010). "Optical Properties". Poly(Lactic Acid): Synthesis, Structures, Properties, Processing, and Applications; Chapter 8: Optical Properties. p. 97. doi:10.1002/9780470649848.ch8. ISBN   978-0-470-64984-8.
  27. ↑ University of Liverpool. "Absolute Refractive Index". Materials Teaching Educational Resources. MATTER Project. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 18 October 2007.
  28. ↑ Index Of Refraction Of Vegetable Oil, The Physics Factbook.
  29. ↑ "High temperature glass melt property database for process modeling"; Eds.: Thomas P. Seward III and Terese Vascott; The American Ceramic Society, Westerville, Ohio, 2005, ISBN   1-57498-225-7
  30. ↑ C. R. Garcia, J. Correa, D. Espalin, J. H. Barton, R. C. Rumpf, R. Wicker, V. Gonzalez, "3D Printing of Anisotropic Metamaterials," PIER Lett, Vol. 34, pp. 75–82, 2012.
  31. ↑ "Combat Boron Nitride" (PDF). Saint Gobain. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 February 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  32. ↑ French, Roger H.; Glass, S.; Ohuchi, F.; et al. (1994). "Experimental and theoretical determination of the electronic structure and optical properties of three phases of {ZrO2}" (PDF). Physical Review B. 49 (8): 5133–5142. Bibcode:1994PhRvB..49.5133F. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.49.5133. PMID   10011463 . Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  33. ↑ "Table of Refractive Indices and Double Refraction of Selected Gems - IGS". International Gem Society. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  34. ↑ "Silicon". Pmoptics.com. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  35. ↑ "Germanium". Pmoptics.com. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
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