Measurement of Thermo Optical Coefficient for Commonly used Dye Solvents

The thermo optic coefficient for the commonly used dye solvents such as ethanol, demineralized water and their mixtures has been measured using a simple interferometric technique. A Michelson interferometer based sensor measures the change in the optical path length due to increased solvent temperature in one of the arm length of interferometer. The temperature coefficient of refractive index for ethanol has been obtained from the change of the wavelength of single mode dye laser with solvent temperature. The value of the thermo optical coefficient for ethanol obtained by two methods is matched. The aim of this study is to measure the thermo optic constant of the commonly used dye solvent for the high repetition rate pulsed dye lasers.