Optics & Laser Technology 34 (2002) 209 – 211

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Calculation of the absorption coe%cients of optical materials by

measuring the transmissivities and refractive indices
C.H. Huang ∗ , G. Zhang, Z.Q. Chen, X.J. Huang, H.Y. Shen
Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fujian Fuzhou 350002, People’s Republic of China
Received 6 September 2001; received in revised form 16 November 2001; accepted 20 November 2001

Abstract

In this paper, a formula for accurate calculation of the absorption coe%cient of optical material is deduced by the relationship of
its transmissivity, refractive index and absorption coe%cient. Because the values of transmissivity and refractive index of the optical
material with a higher accuracy can be determined by the instruments or obtained directly from the references, the calculated results of
the absorption coe%cients with a higher accuracy is certi7ed. The absorption coe%cients of some optical materials are calculated with it,
and the results are discussed. ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Transmissivity; Refractive index; Absorption coe%cient

1. Introduction between both their end surfaces during the measuring pro-
cess in the case of a bigger refractive index, where in then
It is well known that the absorption coe%cient is an im- each reIected beam is 7nally transmitted from both the end
portant parameter in studying the characteristics of optical surfaces.
materials. Generally, the integral sphere method [1] and It can be seen from Fig. 1 that the reIectivity measured
calorimetric technique [2,3] are used for measuring the ab- from the 7rst surface is
sorption coe%cients. Because the values of transmissivity
and refractive index of the optical materials with a higher RA = R1 + R2 T12 e−2al + T12 R1 R22 e−4al
accuracy can be determined by the instruments or obtained +T12 R21 R32 e−6al + · · · :
directly from the references, by comparison with previous
measuring methods, the advantages of the method intro- After making some algebraic deductions, we obtain
duced in this paper are a higher accuracy and less measuring
steps. T12 T12
RA = R 1 − + ; (1)
R1 R1 (1 − R1 R2 e−2al )

2. Principle where R1 , R2 and T1 , T2 are the reIectivities and the trans-

missivities of the 7rst end surface and the second end sur-
In a particular experiment, we found that the transmis- face, respectively.
sivity of a polished and uncoated silicon slice is 53.277% Using the same method, the reIectivity measured from
at 1500 nm wavelength measured using a Perkin-Elmer the second end surface is
UV=Vis=NIR-spectrophotometer, model Lambda 9000. T22 T22
However, its transmissivity calculated by T = {1 − [(n − RB = R2 − + ; (2)
R2 R2 (1 − R1 R2 e−2al )
1)=(n + 1)]2 }2 and n = 3:482 [4] is 48.07%. The measured
value is larger than the calculated value, which is not caused where RA and RB are the reIectivities measured from the
by the measured errors of the instrument. We think that 7rst and the second surface, respectively.
though the incident beam is perpendicular to the 7rst end The transmissivity measured by the instrument is
surface of the sample, there are still multiple reIections
T1 T2 e−al
Ttotal = : (3)
∗ Corresponding author. 1 − R1 R2 e−2al

0030-3992/02/$ - see front matter ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 3 0 - 3 9 9 2 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 1 1 2 - 8
210 C.H. Huang et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 34 (2002) 209–211

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the incident beam reIected and transmitted

by both the end surfaces of the measured sample.
Fig. 2. The relationship between the refractive indices and the transmis-
sivities TA , TB . TA is the one path transmissivity. TB is the transmissivity
Table 1
considering multiple reIection within the sample.
The transmissivity for the diMerent refractive indices of an optical material

n 1.3 1.5 2.0 2.2 3.5 3.55 4.0

T2 0.9663 0.9216 0.7901 0.7386 0.4780 0.4705 0.4096 n ¡ 2, formula (8) can be directly used for calculating the
T 2 =1 − R2 0.9666 0.9231 0.7999 0.7535 0.5284 0.5220 0.4706 transmissivity. When n ¿ 3, the diMerence between them far
exceeds the limit of the experimental errors. It is shown in
Fig. 2 that their diMerence becomes larger with the increase
When a beam is incident to a polished and uncoated of the refractive index. Therefore, the calculation for the
optical material with a little angle transmissivity must use formula (7).

2
n−1
R1 = R 2 = R = ;
n+1
3. Experimental examples
T1 = T2 = T = 1 − R;
then formula (3) is simpli7ed as The transmissivity of the LiNbO3 crystal (transmis-
T 2 e−al sion direction along C-axis and 23 mm in length) and
Ttotal = ; (4) the silicon slice (0:33 mm in thickness) at 1000 and
1 − R2 e−2al
1500 nm wavelengths was determined using a Perkin-Elmer
where Ttotal is the transmissivity measured by the instrument. UV=Vis=NIR-spectrophotometer, model Lambda 9000.
Let e−al = X , then formula (4) becomes Then the measured transmissivities, no (refractive indices
Ttotal R2 X 2 + T 2 X − Ttotal = 0: (5) of ordinary ray) of LiNbO3 7tted by Sellmier equation [4]
and the refractive indices of silicon slice at 1000 nm [5].
We can obtain the calculating formula for the absorption
1500 nm [6] are put into formula (6), respectively. The
coe%cient from formula (5):
   calculated results of the absorption coe%cient are obtained
−T 2 + T 4 + 4Ttotal
2 R2 and listed in Table 2.

= −ln   l: (6)
2Ttotal R2

If the absorption coe%cient

=0, then formula (4) becomes 4. Conclusions
T2
Ttotal = : (7) From the above mentioned, we reach the conclusions as
1 − R2
follows:
When R2 1, formula (7) becomes
(1) For an optical material with 7ne uniformity whose
Ttotal = T 2 : (8)
scattering loss is far less than the absorption loss, its
Formula (7) has a factor 1=(1 − R2 ) as compared with absorption coe%cients at any wavelength can be cal-
formula (8). Using formulae (7) and (8), we calculated the culated using this method as long as the values of the
transmissivities with diMerent refractive indices. The results refractive index and transmissivity at their correspond-
are listed in Table 1. ing wavelength are obtained.
It can be seen from Table 1 that, when n ¡ 2, the diMer- (2) For isotropic crystals, if the refractive index and trans-
ence of these two transmissivity values is ¡ 0:01. Generally, missivity at the selected polarization and transmission
this is within the limit of the experimental errors. So when direction are obtained, then the absorption coe%cients
 C.H. Huang et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 34 (2002) 209–211 211

Table 2
The absorption coe%cients of the LiNbO3 crystal (transmission direction along C-axis and the silicon slice at 1000 and 1500 nm wavelengths)

Crystals and parameters

LiNbO3 Silicon slice

(23:0 nm in length) (0:33 mm in thickness)
Wavelengths no Ttotal
n0 Ttotal

(nm) (×10−4 cm−1 ) (mm−1 )

1000 2.23633 0.74555 0.8575 3.570 0.06820 5.83530
1500 2.21294 0.74917 0.7578 3.482 0.53277 0.01035

in the corresponding transmission directions can be cal- References

culated using this method.
(3) The calculated formula of absorption coe%cient
deduced in this paper is applicable for the accuracy
calculation of the absorption coe%cients of optical
materials, especially for those with bigger refractive
indices.
(4) The calculated accuracy of the absorption coe%cient,
using this method, depends on the accuracy of the mea-
sured transmissivity and refractive index. In order to
ensure this, the better surface quality and Iatness of
both the end surfaces of the measured sample are re-
quired. The less the measured errors of the transmis-
sivity and refractive index, the higher is the calculated
accuracy of the absorption coe%cient.
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