Measurement of weak absorption in optical materials by the PCI method

A setup has been created, that allows to measure absorption coefficients in optically transparent materials by the photothermal common-path interferometry up to 10
^-6
CM
^-1
which allows the separate determination of the surface and volume optical absorption coefficients. In the setup, absorption was detected in the K8 optical glass and the promising nonlinear crystal YCOB.