Gradient shadow pattern reveals refractive index of liquid

We propose a simple method that uses a gradient shadow pattern (GSP) to measure the refractive index n(L) of liquids. A light source generates a “dark-bright-dark” GSP when it is projected through through the back of a transparent, rectangular block with a cylindrical chamber that is filled with a liquid sample. We found that there is a linear relationship between n(L) and the proportion of the bright region in a GSP, which provides the basic principle of the proposed method. A wide range 1.33 ≤ n(L )≤ 1.46 of liquids was measured in the single measurement setup with error <0.01. The proposed method is simple but robust to illuminating conditions, and does not require for any expensive or precise optical components, so we expect that it will be useful in many portable measurement systems that use n(L) to estimate attributes of liquid samples.