Optical constants

Refractive index of Hg (Mercury)

Inagaki et al. 1981: n,k 0.0636–6.20 µm

Data: tabulated nk
Range: 0.06358–6.199 µm
Points: 76
State: liquid
Licence: CC0-1.0

Axis Log x Log y

Click the plot to set the calculator wavelength.

At one wavelength

Refractive index n: 1.74415
Extinction coefficient k: 4.9207

Permittivity ε₁: -21.1713
Permittivity ε₂: 17.1649

Absorption coefficient α: 1.05234e+06 cm⁻¹
Penetration depth δ = λ/(2πk): 19.0053 nm

Abbe number V_d: —
Chromatic dispersion dn/dλ: 5.12775 µm⁻¹

Group index n_g: -1.26891
Group velocity dispersion: — fs²/mm

Dispersion parameter D: — ps/(nm·km)
Photon energy: 2.11001 eV

ε = (n + ik)², α = 4πk/λ, n_g = n − λ dn/dλ, GVD = λ³/(2πc²) d²n/dλ², D = −(λ/c) d²n/dλ². Group-velocity dispersion is given for formula data only.

Use it in Lightsmith

Load this data in Python, simulate in one more line

pip install lightsmith

import lightsmith as ls

# Hg (Mercury): Inagaki et al. 1981: n,k 0.0636–6.20 µm
hg = ls.fetch_refractiveindex("main", "Hg", "Inagaki", ref="c5c2f188e848453def5970e347399d653df2ffc2")
print(hg.range_nm)  # (63.58, 6199.21) nm
eps = hg.eps([633])  # complex permittivity

Downloads the original record once (pinned to the imported snapshot) and caches it.

import json, urllib.request
import lightsmith as ls

url = "https://materials.lightsmith.dev/v1/datasets/ds_ffc679738529/lightsmith"
hg = ls.Tabulated.model_validate(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(url)))
print(hg.source)  # citation and provenance travel with the data

Any dataset here, as the library's Tabulated material (hg/inagaki-1981).

# ... load hg as above, then:
sim = ls.Simulation(
    particles=[ls.Particle(shape=ls.Sphere(radius_nm=50), material=hg)],
    medium_index=1.0,
    wavelengths=ls.WavelengthRange(start_nm=400, stop_nm=1000, num=81),
)
res = ls.solve(sim)  # exact Mie for a sphere
print(res.q_ext)     # extinction efficiency at each wavelength

Same spec runs with DDA, FDTD, BEM or T-matrix: ls.compare(sim, ["mie", "dda"]).

Materials guide Open a sphere of it in Studio Quick start Ask the community

Lightsmith is open source (MIT): Mie, T-matrix, BEM, DDA, FDTD, RCWA, TMM, mode solvers and inverse design behind one spec, on CPU or GPU. GitHub.

Comments and conditions

Liquid mercury at room temperature

References

T. Inagaki, E. T. Arakawa, and M. W. Williams. Optical properties of liquid mercury. Phys. Rev. B 23, 5246-5262 (1981)

doi:10.1103/physrevb.23.5246 Optical properties of liquid mercury, Physical Review B (1981)

Cite

T. Inagaki, E. T. Arakawa and M. W. Williams. Optical properties of liquid mercury. Physical Review B, 23, 5246-5262 (1981), doi:10.1103/physrevb.23.5246; Data from the refractiveindex.info database (M. N. Polyanskiy, Sci. Data 11, 94 (2024), doi:10.1038/s41597-023-02898-2)

Data

76 rows as published

CSV comma separated TXT tab separated YAML n, k Full database record original YAML All quantities CSV JSON metadata

Hg (Mercury), Inagaki et al. 1981: n,k 0.0636–6.20 µm: n and k versus wavelength
λ (µm)	n	k
0.06358	1.20846	0.36385
0.06525	1.20004	0.3662
0.06702	1.19493	0.36722
0.06888	1.19073	0.36721
0.07085	1.18399	0.36584
0.07293	1.1774	0.36644
0.07514	1.16958	0.36731
0.07749	1.15865	0.36806
0.07999	1.1463	0.37416
0.08266	1.13509	0.38266
0.08551	1.1251	0.39352
0.08856	1.1153	0.40361
0.09184	1.10417	0.41615
0.09537	1.09246	0.42949
0.09919	1.07841	0.44505
0.10332	1.06391	0.46691
0.10781	1.05005	0.49093
0.11271	1.0395	0.52333
0.1148	1.03857	0.53631
0.11697	1.0413	0.55027
0.11922	1.04545	0.56148
0.12155	1.05405	0.56923
0.12398	1.06152	0.56711
0.12651	1.06094	0.55658
0.12915	1.04397	0.54072
0.1319	1.00864	0.54777
0.13477	0.98779	0.56844
0.13776	0.97457	0.58846
0.14089	0.96496	0.60676
0.14417	0.95609	0.62442
0.1476	0.95275	0.63815
0.1512	0.95194	0.64552
0.15498	0.946	0.639
0.15895	0.92904	0.62323
0.16314	0.8927	0.5965
0.16755	0.81658	0.57385
0.1722	0.71715	0.58405
0.17712	0.58506	0.61668
0.17969	0.50958	0.67614
0.18233	0.4588	0.75545
0.18505	0.4376	0.83582
0.18785	0.43614	0.89823
0.19074	0.42769	0.94927
0.19373	0.4123	1.00194
0.1968	0.39938	1.05826
0.19997	0.38978	1.11845
0.20664	0.38613	1.23211
0.21377	0.38584	1.34122
0.2214	0.38658	1.45377
0.2296	0.39348	1.56934
0.23843	0.40109	1.68667
0.24797	0.41398	1.80565
0.2583	0.43087	1.92864
0.26953	0.45157	2.05838
0.28178	0.47636	2.19475
0.2952	0.50656	2.34128
0.30996	0.54187	2.50152
0.32627	0.58934	2.66483
0.3444	0.64425	2.85991
0.36466	0.71303	3.0735
0.38745	0.79824	3.29351
0.41328	0.898	3.53785
0.4428	1.02698	3.80193
0.47686	1.186	4.08981
0.5166	1.38332	4.40608
0.56356	1.62088	4.7505
0.61992	1.90988	5.14953
0.6888	2.28417	5.58189
0.7749	2.74611	6.05402
0.8856	3.3238	6.55726
1.0332	4.05007	7.08259
1.23984	4.9614	7.643
1.5498	6.08732	8.31237
2.0664	7.57453	9.19529
3.0996	9.7411	10.6456
6.19921	13.9816	14.2652

Optical transmission calculator

Free-standing sample in vacuum, normal incidence

Transmittance T: —
Reflectance R: —

Fresnel reflection calculator

R_p: —
R_s: —
R = (R_p+R_s)/2: —
Phase φ_p: —
Phase φ_s: —
Brewster angle θ_B: —
Critical angle θ_C: —

Hg (Mercury): all datasets

Inagaki et al. 1981: n,k 0.0636–6.20 µm n,k 0.06358–6.199 µm default

About Hg (Mercury)

Mercury (Hg) is a liquid metal at room temperature, notable for its high density and low melting point. While it has limited direct applications in optics, mercury vapor is used in some specialized lighting sources such as mercury-vapor lamps. It's crucial to exercise extreme caution when handling mercury due to its toxic nature, especially in vapor form. Mercury amalgams and compounds are also utilized in various technologies but are being phased out in many applications due to environmental and health concerns. It's worth mentioning that in older barometers and thermometers, mercury was commonly used, although alternatives have largely replaced it in such devices today.

More about Hg (Mercury) →

Listed in

Provenance

Version: 1 (snapshot c5c2f18)
Source page: refractiveindex.info
Original file: database/data/main/Hg/nk/Inagaki.yml
ID: ds_ffc679738529
API: /v1/datasets/ds_ffc679738529

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