Can refractive index of a substance be increased?

aditya23456

or is it possible to create a material with very high refractive index(order of 100's or more)

DrDu

Yes, the index of refraction becomes very high near an absorption line. If the absorption line is very narrow, the index of refraction becomes very high. There are other possibilities as well, e.g. using nonlinear optics the refractive index at one frequency can be tuned by a laser operating at another frequency.
See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_light

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aditya23456	Can refractive index of a substance be increased? Tweet or is it possible to create a material with very high refractive index(order of 100's or more)

DrDu Recognitions: Science Advisor	Yes, the index of refraction becomes very high near an absorption line. If the absorption line is very narrow, the index of refraction becomes very high. There are other possibilities as well, e.g. using nonlinear optics the refractive index at one frequency can be tuned by a laser operating at another frequency. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_light