Spectrally resolved phase-shifting interferometry for accurate group-velocity dispersion measurements

We report an accurate method to measure the group-velocity dispersion (GVD) of transparent materials by use of spectrally resolved phase-shifting interferometry. The GVD of silica glass slide measured using an eight-step phase-shifting algorithm agrees well with that calculated using the Sellmeier dispersion equation over the entire visible wavelength region, with a rms error of ≤0.0036 μm-2, better than that of other measurement methods reported so far. © 2006 Optical Society of America.