Using Helium as a Standard of Refractive Index: Correcting Errors in a Gas Refractometer

Published

June 1, 2004

Author(s)

Jack A. Stone Jr., Alois Stejskal

Abstract

The refractive index of helium at atmospheric pressure can be determined from ab initio calculations in combination with careful pressure and temperature measurements. Therefore helium can serve as a theory-based standard of refractive index; it might be used as a medium of known refractive index for high-accuracy interferometric length measurements, or it can be used to characterize and correct errors in a gas refractometer. We have used helium to correct for pressure-induced distortions of two refractometers built by us, where both refractometers basically consist of a laser locked to the transmission maximum of a simple Fabry-Perot cavity. As a proof-of-principle of the helium-correction technique, we have used our device to measure the molar refractivity of nitrogen and we find reasonable agreement with previous measurements. When our two refractometers simultaneously measure the refractive index of a common nitrogen sample, we find that the two systems agree with each other within a few parts in 10^9.

Citation

Metrologia

Volume

41

Issue

No. 3

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

helium, index of refraction, length metrology, refractive index, refractometer

Citation

Stone, J. and Stejskal, A. (2004), Using Helium as a Standard of Refractive Index: Correcting Errors in a Gas Refractometer, Metrologia (Accessed June 5, 2023)