Section 1.6.4.5. Measuring refractive indices

Refractive indices measured carefully can be extremely useful aids in crystal identification, as well as being of importance as physical properties of interest. Apart from distinguishing crystalline species that may look similar under the microscope but have widely different refractive indices, the precise composition of crystalline materials belonging to important solid-solution series (e.g. the plagioclase feldspars or the olivines, in geological applications) can also be determined.

The direct measurement of refractive indices is often made by the examination of crystal grains mounted in an immersion oil, using the so-called Becke line test. This is observed in plane-polarized light with the substage diaphragm closed down to produce a narrow beam of essentially parallel rays. A medium-power lens is usually suitable. When the oil has a refractive index different from that of the crystal, the Becke line appears as a bright rim of light around the edge of the crystal. However, as the microscope tube is racked up and down slightly (i.e. the position of focus is changed), the Becke line moves in or out relative to the crystal edge. As the position of focus is lowered the line moves towards the medium with the lower refractive index, e.g. if the oil has a higher refractive index than the crystal, lowering the focus (racking down) causes the Becke line to contract into the crystal. It is of course important to set the specimen in an extinction position before making the observation. If the oil has a refractive index between those of the two rays passing through the crystal, then the behaviour of the Becke line will reverse if the crystal is rotated to the other extinction position. In cases where there is a very large contrast between the crystal and the surrounding medium, a line as such may not be observed, but rather the specimen may appear to glow with concentrated light. The equivalent of Becke line movement is then the expansion or contraction of the light pool with changing focus.

The general objective of the observations is eventually to achieve an exact match between the immersion medium and the crystal. This is done by choosing different oils, or mixtures of oils, in sequence, the refractive indices of which are measured by a suitable refractometer. Ideally monochromatic or near-monochromatic light (e.g. the Na doublet with ca 590 nm) is used, in which case the Becke line simply disappears when the crystal and the oil match. In white light however, because of dispersion by the oil, a match is shown by the presence of two faint Becke lines, one red and one greenish blue, which migrate in opposite directions as the focus is changed.

The general strategy of refractive-index determination is perfectly straightforward for cubic crystals, but requires the separate determination of values of and in uniaxial crystals, and , and in biaxial crystals. The most general case is that of the biaxial crystal. If a large number of crystal grains in the mount are examined, a number of cases may be distinguished.

Uniaxial crystals present a simpler series of cases, in which the crystal may show both refractive indices higher than the oil (i.e. the refractive index of the oil is less than that of the fast ray), both lower than the oil, or one higher and one lower.

Systematic application of the above techniques leads to the determination of all the refractive indices required, and constitutes one of the most powerful methods of crystal identification or description. However, it is useful to make an additional check using the fact that, in anisotropic crystals, any specimen that fails to show polarization colours between crossed polars (i.e. remains dark in all stage positions) must lie with an optic axis parallel to the microscope axis. Such a crystal directly shows (uniaxial crystals) or (biaxial crystals). Furthermore, crystal grains showing maximum birefringence (see below) can be checked to see if they give a centred flash figure (see later), and if they do, their two vibration directions will show and , or and , that is, the optic axis or axes lie in the plane of the microscope slide.

In larger crystalline specimens, several other techniques are available for measuring the refractive index. Perhaps the simplest and also the most convenient is to cut the crystal into a prism, and use minimum-deviation measurements on a spectrometer table. In addition, large plates can be inserted directly into a commercial refractometer, in order to measure the refractive index directly.