One-dimensional rainbow technique using Fourier domain filtering

Rainbow refractometry can measure the refractive index and the size of a droplet simultaneously. The refractive index measurement is extracted from the absolute rainbow scattering angle. Accordingly, the angular calibration is vital for accurate measurements. A new optical design of the one-dimensional rainbow technique is proposed by using a one-dimensional spatial filter in the Fourier domain. The relationship between the scattering angle and the CCD pixel of a recorded rainbow image can be accurately determined by a simple calibration. Moreover, only the light perpendicularly incident on the lens in the angle (phi) direction is selected, which exactly matches the classical inversion algorithm used in rainbow refractometry. Both standard and global one-dimensional rainbow techniques are implemented with the proposed optical design, and are successfully applied to measure the refractive index and the size of a line of n-heptane droplets. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America