Radiation Thermometry Based on Photonic Crystal Fiber

Fiber-coupled radiometry allows for the radiometric measurement of high temperatures in environments where there is no line of sight to the target. However, transmission through conventional silica optical fibers degrades rapidly at elevated temperatures, and exotic fibers—such as sapphire fibers—typically cannot be bent. As part of a project to investigate the performance of solid oxide fuel cells, the feasibility of using an alternative fiber, solid-core silica photonic crystal fiber (PCF), was tested. The test system used an Inconel blackbody as a source, and a detection system based on an InGaAs array spectrometer with a wavelength range of 907 nm to 1681 nm. The temperature was determined from the spectrometer signal at particular wavelengths using the Planck relationship. Two tests were performed: (1) long-term high temperature soak tests to measure the drift and noise in thermal radiation levels, in which spectra are sequentially recorded over a long period of time with the blackbody cavity at a constant temperature and (2) temperature dependence tests, whereby thermal radiation spectra are recorded with the blackbody cavity at several temperatures. At 934 °C, the transmission of the PCF decreased at a rate of 0.078 % per hour corresponding to a temperature error of −0.12 °C per hour. The transmission of conventional silica fiber decreased at a rate of 0.5 % per hour corresponding to a temperature error of −0.8 °C per hour. While the PCF represents a significant improvement over conventional fiber, it is still not good enough for most practical purposes. At 600 °C there was no observable decline in transmission and there may be applications for PCF in that regime.