Lattice and electronic contributions to the refractive index of CuWO4

We report an investigation of the refractive index dispersion and anisotropy in CuWO4 by means of interference measurements in two extinction directions from mid infrared to the visible region of the energy spectrum. The analysis of the refractive index dispersion yields ϵ(∞) = 4.5(1) for light polarization parallel to the c-axis and ϵ(∞) = 5.3(1) with respect to the other extinction axis. In addition, we report reflectance measurements carried out from the far infrared to the near ultraviolet to study the lattice and electronic contributions to the refractive index of CuWO4. We have determined the wavenumbers of nine infrared active lattice modes and compared them with previous ab initio calculations. The value of the Penn gap, 7 eV, as well as the origin of a structure observed at 4.4 eV in the reflectance spectrum, is discussed in the context of the CuWO4 electronic structure.