Wide-band single-shot measurement of refractive indices and birefringence of transparent materials

A new approach to measure the refractive index of a given material, in its whole transparency window and within a single-shot, is proposed. This method, which requires the use of only few and common optical elements, is based on the analysis of the transmission function of a single etalon fabricated with the material under test, and can be used also to directly evaluate the sample birefringence with high accuracy. Method's effectiveness is verified on both isotropic and birefringent samples with known optical properties in the 0.7–1.65 μm wavelength range. Using the proposed method, the refractive index can be estimated with accuracy of the order of 10−4.