Precise birefringence measurement of anisotropic materials by dual-comb spectroscopy

Dual-comb spectroscopy (DCS) is a new Fourier spectroscopic method which realizes precise and rapid spectral detection with a broad bandwidth. In this study, we applied DCS to characterization of birefringence of anisotropic materials. As a demonstration, we evaluated the refractive index and the birefringence of an anisotropic crystal, Nd:YVO
₄
. We confirmed the evaluated values were consistent to some reference data, and our proposed scheme was successfully performed as the precise and rapid characterization method of the birefringence. It is expected that this technique will become a useful tool in a wide range of applications such as laser developments.