Use of radiation and hybrid modes to increase the accuracy in the determination of the refractive indices of rutile

A new method to correlate prism and substrate refractive indices is present ed and applied to the determination of rutile refractive indices, both ordi nary and extraordinary, at different wavelengths in the visible and the nea r infrared. The method exploits radiation modes and, when the sample struct ure allows it, hybrid modes. An accuracy of approximately 2 x 10(-4) was ac hieved without the need of any specific preparation of the samples. The met hod exhibits a good versatility since it can be exploited for the determina tion of the refractive index of a coupling prism when the substrate index i s known and vice versa. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America.