REAL-TIME INTERFEROMETRIC MEASUREMENTS OF DISPERSION-CURVES (VOL 110, PG 381, 1994)

A new procedure for real time interferometric measurement of the refractive index as a function of wavelength is presented. The technique consists in the spectral analysis of the interferogram which is build up when the specimen is placed in a Michelson interferometer illuminated with a broad-continuous spectrum light source. The interferogram displayed in the spectral domain stores the refractive index as a function of wavelength. No special shape is required for the specimen, even when the parallelism between its faces allows to increase precision which can attain 10(-6) for the refractive index at each resolved wavelength. Experimental examples for optical glass and rhodamine solutions are presented.