Dispersion relations for evaluating the complex refractive index of medium without the information of its thickness

A general method to obtain the complex refractive index of a medium from absorbance, or alternatively from optical path length data, without knowing the sample thickness is proposed. The method can be formulated in any spectral range and it is here applied particularly in the terahertz spectral range to both simulated and experimental data. The key idea is the derivation of nonconventional dispersion relations that partly resemble traditional Kramers-Kronig relations. The method is shown to work well in extracting the complex refractive index of a drug system and a precipitated calcium carbonate.