A Michelson interferometer setup was used to determine refractive index and thickness of a fused-quartz sample with no knowledge of either parameter. At small angles, <10° , the interferometer equation follows a fourth-order polynomial in the sample refractive index alone, effectively decoupling the sample thickness from the equation. The incident angle of the He–Ne laser beam versus fringe shift was fitted to the polynomial, and its coefficients obtained. These were used to determine refractive index to within 6\times {10}^{-4} of the known value with an accuracy of \pm 1.3\% . Sample thickness was determined to an accuracy of \pm 2.5\% . Reproducibility of the rotating table was determined to be \pm 2\times {10}^{-3} degrees.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

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