The Use of the Interferometer in the Isotopic Analysis of Water

Abstract

A method of analysis of mixtures of protium and deuterium oxides is presented. It consists in calibrating the apparent difference in indices of refraction of natural water and that containing higher concentrations of deuterium oxide, as obtained by a Zeiss water interferometer, against the corresponding differences in specific gravities. It is found that these two quantities are not proportional. The precision of measurement in the neighborhood of an experimentally determined specific gravity in a 40.06 mm cell is 0.01 percent.