Refractive index measurements in absorbing media with white light spectral interferometry

White light spectral interferometry is applied to measure the refractive index in absorbing liquids in the spectral range of 400-1000 nm. We analyze the influence of absorption on the visibility of interferometric fringes and, accordingly, on the measurement of the refractive index. Further, we show that the refractive index in the absorption band can be retrieved by a two-step process. The procedure requires the use of two samples of different thickness, the thicker one to retrieve the refractive index in the transparent region and the thinnest to obtain the data in the absorption region. First, the refractive index values are retrieved with good accuracy in the transparent region of the material for 1-mm-thick samples. Second, these refractive index values serve also to precisely calculate the thickness of a thinner sample (similar to 150 mu m) since the accuracy of the methods depends strongly on the thickness of the sample. Finally, the refractive index is recovered for the entire spectral range. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement