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Compact Blackbody Radiation Atomic Sensor: Measuring Temperature using Optically Excited Atoms in Vapor Cells

Published

Author(s)

David La Mantia, Mingxin Lei, Nikunjkumar Prajapati, Noah Schlossberger, Matthew Simons, Christopher Holloway, Julia Scherschligt, Stephen Eckel, Eric Norrgard

Abstract

We demonstrate a blackbody radiation thermometer based on optically excited rubidium atoms in a vapor cell. Operating as a calibrated contact thermometer from 308K to 343 K, we realize temperature uncertainty as low as 0.04 %, and statistical temperature sensitivity of 0.1 % in one second. Additionally, we describe an extension to this measurement scheme where the device operates as a self-calibrated, or primary, thermometer. We make progress toward realizing a primary thermometer by demonstrating a temperature-dependent self-consistent calibration scheme, with temperature accuracy of order 1 % limited by the uncertainty in atomic transition dipole matrix elements.
Citation
Physical Review Applied
Issue
23

Citation

La Mantia, D. , Lei, M. , Prajapati, N. , Schlossberger, N. , SIMONS, M. , Holloway, C. , Scherschligt, J. , Eckel, S. and Norrgard, E. (2025), Compact Blackbody Radiation Atomic Sensor: Measuring Temperature using Optically Excited Atoms in Vapor Cells, Physical Review Applied, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.23.044037, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=958572 (Accessed June 7, 2025)

Issues

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Created April 17, 2025, Updated June 3, 2025
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