  The dispersive part of the refractive index of vanadium is determined by
measuring the angular displacement of the first order diffraction peak of a
V/Fe superlattice. The measurements were made using elliptically polarized
synchrotron radiation which was scanned through the V L2,3 absorption edges for
different incident scattering angles. The x-ray scattering technique provides
access to direct determination of the dispersive part of the refractive index
through an absorption resonance. The influence of absorption at the resonances
is shown by comparing the absorption correction to the dispersion correction.
The results demonstrate that 1-{\delta} is larger than unity at the L2,3
resonances of vanadium and the optical consequences are discussed.
