The 5000W and 10K-W sensors work on the thermopile principle, where the radial heat flow in the absorber disk causes a temperature difference between the hot and cold junctions of the thermopile which in turn causes a voltage difference across the thermopile. Since the instrument is a thermopile voltage generating device, it must be linear at low values of output. Therefore, if it is shown to be linear at powers which are a significant fraction of the maximum power, it will necessarily be linear at very low powers and if the calibration is correct at low powers, it will remain correct at high powers as well. On the other hand, although the output may be linear at low powers, there may be a zero offset that, due to the relatively low output at low powers, will cause an error in calibration.
For example, if calibration is performed at 200 W and the output of the sensor is 10 μV/W (a typical value) and there is a zero offset of only 1 μV, this will cause a calibration error of 10%. Ophir’s calibration method always measures the difference between the reading with power applied and without power applied, thus eliminating error due to zero offset. This measurement is taken several times to insure accuracy. The above measurement method assures that the calibration inaccuracy due to measurement errors is less than 1%, comparable to the expected errors in our lower powered sensors.In order to verify this, models L1500W, 5000W, 8000W and 10K-W sensors have been measured by various standards laboratories. These measurements have shown Ophir sensors to be well within the claimed limits of linearity. The Comet 10K series measures the heat rise of the absorbing puck when irradiated by the laser for 10 s. In order to calibrate the Comet 10K, we simply irradiate with a lower power laser for longer e.g. 150 W for 60s. Thus the heating effect is similar to that of a higher power laser. Tests of the Comet calibrated by this method vs. NIST traceable high power sensors has shown that it is accurate and reproducible.
The sensitivity of various photodiode sensors varies from one sensor to another as well as with wavelength. Therefore, each PD300 sensor is individually calibrated against a NIST standard, which has been calibrated at several nm intervals over the entire spectral range. The calibration is done over the entire spectral range against the NIST standard using a computer-controlled monochromator. Since the instruments are calibrated against NIST standards, the accuracy is generally ±3% over the wavelength range the calibration has been performed. The linearity of the photodiode detector is extremely high and errors due to this factor can be ignored, as long as saturation intensity is not approached.
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