 Spectroscopic wavenumber

A spectroscopic wavenumber commonly means the reciprocal of the vacuum wavelength ${\lambda }_0$ of electromagnetic radiation, often in $\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$. It is an ordinary spatial frequency, so the vacuum angular wavenumber is $K_0=2\pi \tilde{\nu }$. Specify vacuum or in-medium wavelength: the same frequency can have different wavelengths in different media. IUPAC's “wavenumber in medium” entry defines the in-medium reciprocal $1/\lambda$ and notes that unqualified spectroscopic usage often means the vacuum reciprocal.^[ref]

For example, a vacuum wavelength of $500\mathrm{nm}=5\times 10^{-5}\mathrm{cm}$ corresponds to $\tilde{\nu }=20000\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}=2\times 10^6{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$. Multiplication by $2\pi$ gives $K_0=4\pi \times 10^6\mathrm{rad}{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$. Converting centimetres to metres and converting cycles to radians are separate operations.