Integrating Spheres

We offer Ulbricht spheres made from a special polymer suitable for the wavelength range 250nm – 2.5 µm. For longer wavelengths in the range 700nm – 20 µm, a gold coating on a rough, metallic surface is used.

Since lasers in this spectral range are usually also high power, we use solid copper as a thermally conductive substrate material.

By choosing the size of the integrating sphere, the overall sensitivity of the system can be adjusted. In addition, the detector is independent of inhomogeneities in power density and polarization.

The detector is also independent of the incidence location and angle of the laser radiation.

High power measurements are often performed using thermopile detectors.

Thermopiles however, have the disadvantage of reacting very slowly – typical risetimes leading to measurement periods of 1 second at best.

The combination of an integrating sphere and a photodiode based power meter opens the possibility of measuring high power fluctuations on a µs time scale.