Lu, Zheng (2007-09). Optical absorption of pure water in the blue and ultraviolet. Doctoral Dissertation. Thesis uri icon

abstract

  • The key feature of the Integrating Cavity Absorption Meter (ICAM) is that it produces an isotropic illumination of the liquid sample and thereby dramatically minimizes scattering effects. The ICAM can produce an effective optical path length up to several meters. As a consequence, it is capable of measuring absorption coefficients as low as 0.001 m-1. The early version of the ICAM was used previously to measure the absorption spectrum of pure water over the 380-700 nm range. To extend its range into the ultraviolet, several modifications have been completed. The preliminary tests showed that the modified ICAM was able to measure the absorption of pure water for the wavelength down to 300 nm. After extensive experimental investigation and analysis, we found that the absorption of SpectralonA,A(R) (the highly diffusive and reflective material used to build the ICAM) has a higher impact on measurements of absorption in the UV range than we had expected. Observations of high values for pure water absorption in the UV, specifically between 300 and 360 nm, are a consequence of absorption by the SpectralonA,A(R). These results indicated that even more serious modifications were required (e.g. SpectralonA,A(R) can not be used for a cavity in the UV). Consequently, we developed a new diffuse reflecting material and used fused silica powder (sub-micron level) sealed inside a quartz cell to replace the inner SpectralonA,A(R) cavity of the ICAM. The new data is in excellent agreement with the Pope and Fry data (380-600 nm) and fills the gap between the 320 nm data of Quickenden and Irvin and 380 nm data of Pope and Fry. We present definitive results for the absorption spectrum of pure water between 300 and 600 nm.

publication date

  • May 2006