Group refractive index and group velocity dispersion measurement by complex master slave interferometry

This paper demonstrates that the complex master slave interferometry (CMSI)

method used in spectral domain interferometry (SDI) can efficiently be used for accurate

refractive index and group velocity dispersion measurements of optically transparent samples.

For the first time, we demonstrate the relevance of the phase information delivered by CMSI

for dispersion evaluations with no need to linearize data. The technique proposed here has

been used to accurately measure the group refractive index and the group velocity dispersion

of a strong dispersive sample (SF6 glass), and a weak dispersive one (distilled water). The

robustness of the technique is demonstrated through the manipulation of several sets of

experimental data.