Patent ID: 8692985
Filing Date: 2014-04-08
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method of determining the refractive index of a prism shaped material, comprising the steps of: a) providing a system comprising: b) mounting a prism shaped material to said stage, said prism shaped material having converging input and detector sides that form an apex angle “A” where they intersect; c) while causing said source of a beam of electromagnetic radiation to provide a beam of electromagnetic radiation, rotating said rotatable support arm on said source side of said prism shaped material clockwise or counterclockwise some number of degrees to direct a beam of electromagnetic radiation toward the source side of said prism shaped material at an angle of incidence to said source side thereof, and rotating said separate rotatable support arm on said detector side of said prism shaped material counterclockwise or clockwise respectively, to the same magnitude number of degrees as was the rotatable support arm to which the source is attached and monitoring the intensity of the beam entering said detector as a result; d) repeating step c) for multiplicity of additional input beam angles of incidence and monitoring the intensity of the beam entering said detector as a result for each said angle to determine the optimum angle of incidence of said electromagnetic beam with respect to said source side of said prism shaped material at which the detector indicates a maximum intensity; and e) for the optimum maximum intensity angle of incidence determined in step d), in said computer, applying the following formula: to determine n 2 , where n 1 and n 2 are the refractive indicies of the ambient environment surrounding said prism shaped material, and of said prism shaped material, respectively.