Optical constants

Refractive index of Kapton

Philipp et al. 1986: k 0.18–0.33 µm

Data: tabulated k
Range: 0.18–0.33 µm
Points: 16
Licence: CC0-1.0

Axis Log x Log y

Click the plot to set the calculator wavelength. Note: the source gives k only; n is not available.

At one wavelength

Refractive index n: —
Extinction coefficient k: 0.736509

Permittivity ε₁: —
Permittivity ε₂: —

Absorption coefficient α: 379313 cm⁻¹
Penetration depth δ = λ/(2πk): 52.7269 nm

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

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

Dispersion parameter D: — ps/(nm·km)
Photon energy: 5.08132 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

This dataset has k only, so it cannot be used as a simulation material by itself. Pick a dataset with n from the list above.

Materials guide 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

Polyimide (Pyralin PI-2540)

Notes on the source data (kept exactly as published):

the source gives k only; n is not available

References

H. R. Philipp, H. S. Cole, Y. S. Liu, T. A. Sitnik. Optical absorption of some polymers in the region 240-170 nm. Appl. Phys. Lett. 48, 192-194 (1986)

doi:10.1063/1.96940 Optical absorption of some polymers in the region 240–170 nm, Applied Physics Letters (1986)

Cite

H. R. Philipp, H. S. Cole, Y. S. Liu and T. A. Sitnik. Optical absorption of some polymers in the region 240–170 nm. Applied Physics Letters, 48, 192-194 (1986), doi:10.1063/1.96940; Data from the refractiveindex.info database (M. N. Polyanskiy, Sci. Data 11, 94 (2024), doi:10.1038/s41597-023-02898-2)

Data

16 rows as published

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

Kapton, Philipp et al. 1986: k 0.18–0.33 µm: n and k versus wavelength
λ (µm)	k
0.18	0.369551
0.19	0.46485
0.2	0.595069
0.21	0.689225
0.22	0.691402
0.23	0.635876
0.24	0.694915
0.25	0.798899
0.26	0.859121
0.27	0.843177
0.28	0.791741
0.29	0.649839
0.3	0.508938
0.31	0.503443
0.32	0.188872
0.33	0.090364

Plot

At one wavelength

Load this data in Python, simulate in one more line

Comments and conditions

References

Data