Abstract
WE are writing to direct attention to a source of error which may occur in spectroscopic investigation of the infra-red region of the spectrum. On reviewing the literature in which experimental work in this region is reported, we find that usually no note is made of the temperature of the prism at the time when the experiment is being conducted. In the course of investigations which we have been carrying on for some time on the absorption of gases in the near infrared, we have had occasion to observe the important effect of temperature on the refractive indices of rocksalt and fluorite. Thus, a variation of 5° in the working temperature would result in a difference of so much as 0·075, (about 180 wave numbers) in certain parts of the near infra-red.
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ROBERTSON, R., FOX, J. Effect of Temperature on the Refractive Index of Rocksalt. Nature 119, 818 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119818b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119818b0
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