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Principal Dispersion

Author: the photonics expert Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta

Definition: a crude measure for chromatic dispersion of a transparent optical material

Category: article belongs to category general optics general optics

DOI: 10.61835/u26 Cite the article: BibTex plain text HTML Link to this page LinkedIn

The principal dispersion is a rather crude measure for chromatic dispersion of an optical material in the visible spectral region, which was developed in the early years of optics. It is simply the difference of refractive indices between two specific standard spectral lines of hydrogen:

the F line at 486.1 nm (blue)
the C line at 656.3 nm (red)

The principal dispersion <$n_\textrm{F} - n_\textrm{C}$> appears in the definition of the Abbe number.

In photographic optics, the principal dispersion is often based on two somewhat different spectral lines of cadmium:

the F' line at 480 nm (blue)
the C' line at 643.8 nm (blue)

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