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

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel blackbody radiation thermometer using optically excited rubidium atoms in vapor cells, achieving high precision and fast temperature measurements, with potential for self-calibration as a primary thermometer.

Contribution

The work presents a compact atomic sensor for temperature measurement based on blackbody radiation, including a self-calibration scheme for primary thermometry.

Findings

Achieved 0.1% statistical uncertainty in 1 second

Resolved temperature with 0.04% precision between 308 K and 344 K

Demonstrated a self-calibrated scheme with 1% accuracy limited by atomic data

Abstract

We demonstrate a blackbody radiation thermometer based on optically excited rubidium atoms in a vapor cell. The temperature measurement is fast, with statistical uncertainty as low as 0.1% in one second. We resolve temperature with a precision of 0.04% in the range 308 K to 344 K when averaging for several seconds. 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.