Highly accurate interferometric evaluation of thermal expansion and dn/dT of optical materials

Thermo-mechanical and -optical properties of Y3Al5O12 (YAG), YVO4, and GdVO4 were evaluated with less than 2% of evaluation error. Measured thermal expansion coefficient for YAG, [100]-YVO4, [001]-YVO4, [001]-GdVO4, and [001]-GdVO4 were 6.13, 1.76, 8.24, 1.19, and 7.26 × 10−6/K at room temperature. Temperature coefficients of refractive index for YAG, YVO4 in ordinary and extraordinary polarization, and GdVO4 in ordinary and extraordinary polarization at room temperature for the wavelength of 1.06 μm were 12.1, 15.5, 8.41, 15.2, and 9.92 × 10−6/K, respectively.