Файл: Weber H., Herziger G., Poprawe R. (eds.) Laser Fundamentals. Part 1 (Springer 2005)(263s) PEo .pdf

are the most accurate among all primary standards, with relative uncertainties of less than 0.01 % [85Qui, 96Fox]. The principle of operation of both the cryogenic radiometers and the instruments at ambient temperature is that a thermometer measures the temperature rise of an absorption cavity, relative to a constant-temperature heat sink, during radiant and electrical heating cycles. By adjusting the electrical power so that the absorption cavity temperature rise is the same for both types of heating, the radiant power can be equated to the easily measured quantity of electrical power. For cryogenic radiometers the corrections due to the limited absorptance of the cavity, the lead heating of electrical connections, the radiative heat loss, and the background radiation can be made su ciently small to reach very accurate equivalence of optical and electrical heating [96Fox]. Today, high-precision calibrations of laser radiometry secondary standards are mostly traceable to cryogenic radiometers. In Fig. 2.1.2 a typical experimental arrangement for the calibration of transfer photodiodes is shown [93Fu].

2.1.3.2 Secondary standards

Secondary standards serve to disseminate a metrologic scale or quantity to the user in science and industry. In this section, first, the common detectors used in the secondary standards for laser radiometry are shortly described, and second, some examples for laser radiometers and calorimeters are given. The detection principle of the secondary standards is usually thermal or photoelectric. The thermal detectors have the remarkable advantage of a flat spectral responsivity function which makes the calibration for di erent laser wavelengths not necessary or at least easier compared to that of photoelectric detectors. Among the thermal detectors we distinguish between thermopile detectors, bolometric and pyroelectric detectors.

A thermopile consists of a number of thermocouples in series to provide a thermoelectric voltage proportional to the temperature di erence between the receiver and its thermal environment. Its optimization in detector applications has received considerable attention [68Smi, 58Sch, 70Ste]. At this point the term responsivity s is introduced which is the ratio of the detector output to the detector input. Whereas the detector input is a radiometric quantity, the detector output is usually an electrical quantity, for example current, voltage, or change in resistance. In order to optimize the responsivity of a thermopile one has to maximize the Seebeck coe cient of the two materials used for each thermocouple, the thermal resistance between the receiver and the environment, and the absorptance of the surface. The materials used for thermocouples are either metals, alloys, or semiconductors, for examples see [89Hen].

A bolometer is a temperature transducer based on the change of electrical resistance with temperature. The important quantity is the temperature di erence between the receiver and its

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thermal environment. Therefore one resistance element is needed to measure the temperature of the receiver and one to measure that of the thermal environment. AC and DC bridge techniques are applied for the comparison, the most common employing Wheatstone bridge configurations. The second resistance element should be physically close to the radiation-measuring element to compensate for convective disturbances, pressure fluctuations, changes in temperature of the housing, and instabilities in the bridge supply. The resistors are preferably made of metal wires or films of nickel, platinum, or gold [65Ble]. Thermistors are also used which have a larger temperature coe cient of the resistance. At lower operation temperatures the signal-to-noise ratio of bolometers can be increased considerably [82Mat, 87McD].

Pyroelectric detectors produce a current proportional to the rate of temperature change. The detection mechanism is based on the temperature dependence of the electrical polarization in ferroelectric crystals. Since pyroelectric detectors respond to modulated radiant power only, their use in laser radiometers for measuring cw radiation requires chopping of the incident beam. This can provide considerable drift immunity and allows for the use of drift-free AC amplification techniques [70Put, 75Tif].

Beside the thermal detectors also photoelectric devices or quantum detectors are used in laser radiometry. Photoelectric detectors for laser radiometric applications are either photoconductors or photodiodes. In a photoconductor made of a thin film of a semiconductor material the incident radiation generates additional carriers. These intrinsic band-to-band transitions or extrinsic transitions involving forbidden-gap energy levels result in an increase of conductivity [81Sze]. For sensitive infrared detection, the photoconductor must be cooled in order to reduce thermal ionization of the energy levels. In photodiodes the carriers are mainly generated in the depletion layer of the diode junction. The electron-hole pairs separated by an internal or external electric field recombine by driving an external current. Photodiodes are operated in two di erent modes: In the photovoltaic mode no bias voltage is applied and the photodiode can be considered as current source. In contrast, in the reverse-bias mode the photocurrent generates a voltage drop at an external load resistance which is used as measuring quantity. The reverse-bias mode is preferred for the detection of pulsed laser radiation.

A practical example of a radiometer for cw laser radiation is shown in Fig. 2.1.3. It measures radiant power in the range from 1 mW to 10 W, whereas the lower limit is set by detector and amplifier noise and the upper by the load limit of the electrical heater [89Moe]. The radiation absorber is a polished hollow cone electro-plated with a nearly specular reflecting black nickel layer. The temperature di erence between the absorber cone and the heat sink is measured by a thermopile. The electric heater for moderate-accuracy in-situ calibrations of the instrument is wound around the cone. Another design of a thermopile-type radiometer with an integral alignment module can be found in [88Ino]. Further similar systems are described in [77Gun, 91Rad]. A commercial version of a laser radiometer based on a pyroelectric lithium tantalate crystal is described in [89Hen]. For higher radiant power levels of up to 1 kW cavity absorbers cooled by a surrounding jacket of flowing

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water are employed. The di erence in temperature between the outflowing and inflowing water is measured and serves as quantity for the absorbed laser radiant power [96Bra]. A special design of the surface geometry of the cavity reduces the irradiance of the laser beam, thus improving the protection from damaging the surface.

The preferred instruments for pulsed laser radiation are thermally absorbing devices such as calorimeters. The receiver element is often a glass-disk, where the radiation is absorbed in the volume instead of on the surface. The absorptance exhibits an excellent stability under chemical and mechanical stress. This type of calorimeter is described in [70Edw, 74Gun]. The radiative load can be reduced by using glass with a low absorption coe cient which increases the length of the absorption path. On the other hand the heat capacity increases linearly with the thickness of the glass-disk which, in conjunction with the poor thermal conductivity of glass, results in long response and cooling times of these detectors. The radiometric scale for laser radiant energy is usually derived from the scale for cw laser radiant power. In [91Moe] a fast electromechanical shutter is used to produce pulses of known laser radiant energy of up to 5 J. The influence of the pulse duration has to be corrected in the calibration procedure. A laser energy meter not depending on a cw laser radiant power scale is described in [90Yua]. In this instrument the light pressure of the laser beam sensed by two mirrors is converted by a moving coil to an electrical signal. The main advantages of this system are fast response and no interruption of the laser beam. The device has been investigated for single laser pulses of radiant energies between 10 mJ and 6 J. Another method not interrupting the laser beam is the photoacoustic calorimetry [86Kim]. There, the radiant energy incident upon a mirror is absorbed at the mirror surface. The absorbed energy generates elastic strain waves which propagate through the mirror substrate. The strain waves eventually pass through a piezoelectric transducer attached to the back of the mirror substrate. The voltage of the piezoelectric crystal gives a direct indication of the amount of energy absorbed at the mirror surface. Since a priori the absorptance of the mirror is not known the instrument has to be calibrated against a standard energy meter.

2.1.4 Outlook – State of the art and trends

Although optical radiometry has been developed for 100 years, measurements of the various radiometric quantities only recently have achieved the required small uncertainties. Today the most accurate detector-based primary radiometric standard is the electrically calibrated cryogenic radiometer. In this instrument the radiant power of – preferably – a laser beam is measured by substituting the absorbed optical power of the laser beam by the electrical power of a heating system. Cryogenic radiometers operate at liquid helium temperatures and have a measurement uncertainty of a few parts in 104, a significant improvement over earlier room-temperature radiometers.

Accurate characterization of laser sources is crucial to the e ective development and use of industrial technologies such as light-wave telecommunications, laser-based medical instrumentation, materials processing, photolithography, data storage, and laser safety equipment. Traceable measurement standards are essential both for users to have confidence in their measurements and to support quality assurance in the manufacture of lasers and laser systems. Because lasers present a potential safety hazard, it is also important to have measurement standards to satisfy nationally and internationally agreed safety limits. The traceability for laser radiometric measurements in Germany is maintained by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt. It meets the requirements for calibration and testing laboratories, certification and accreditation bodies defined in the ISO/IEC Guide 17025 and the DIN/EN 45000 and DIN/EN/ISO 9000 series of standards, see http://www.ptb.de/en/org/q/q3/q33/ index.htm.

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References for 2.1

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