Determinación experimental de los índices de refracción complejos de metales

This work describes the process followed to determine the complex refractive indices of metals, by means of a simple experimental process, so that it can be carried out in a university optics laboratory. This is as an alternative method to traditional processes that involve sophisticated and high-cost materials that are often not counted in a conventional laboratory. For the process, a gold foil and two sources of different wavelengths were used, a sodium lamp and a Helium-Neon laser. The experimental results agree acceptably with the data found in specialized books on optics. Among the conclusions, it stands out: It has been shown that the spectrogoniometer is a very useful device to be able to carry out experiments on optics in which angles play a relevant role. Its handling and finetuning has in itself been a good kind of refresher on optical concepts.