Simultaneous measurement of focal length and index of refraction of a microlens using a compound microscope

The fabrication of microlenses has spurred a lot of interest and resulted in multiple techniques of fabrication in the past decade. However the metrology of these lenses has received less attention and remains a complex and time-consuming task that does not allow frequent control during development and manufacturing. We propose a simple technique based on a standard compound microscope that would allow measuring the focal length of a plano-convex lens and at the same time obtain a measure of the index of refraction of the lens material. The method relies on observing the different images of an object placed in the illumination path of the microscope. Among these images, some are created by the light going through the lens and others by its reflection on the surface. We show that with the image distance and size it is possible to retrieve the focal length and the average index of refraction of the lens material in the case of quasi-spherical lenses. The accuracy obtained by the technique is better than a few per cent and its cost is negligible as it only uses existing equipment.