Optik 168 (2018) 390–395

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Optik
journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/ijleo

Original research article

Realization of spectral irradiance responsivity at NIS-Egypt

Moamen Ghazeer a , Alaaeldin Abdelmageed a,∗ , Arafa Hassen b
a
National Institute of Standards, Photometry and Radiometry division, Giza 12211, Egypt
b
Fayoum University, Faculty of Science, Department of Physics, Fayoum 63514, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Realization of the absolute spectral irradiance responsivity of photodetectors in A/W/cm2
Received 8 January 2018 is a fundamental requirement for many photometric, radiometric and colorimetric appli-
Accepted 12 April 2018 cations. This work aimed to develop a standardized radiometric setup for realizing the
absolute spectral irradiance responsivity in the range of 500 nm–950 nm at the National
Keywords: Institute of Standards (NIS), Egypt. A silicon trap detector, calibrated against the primary
Irradiance responsivity standard cryogenic radiometer, is used as a transfer standard for the calibration of S2281
Monochromator
Hamamatsu silicon photodiode, as a working standard, using a lamp-double monochroma-
Trap detector
tor based system. The accompanied uncertainty components affecting the measurements
Uncertainty
were investigated.
© 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Irradiance responsivity for most photometric and radiometric detectors in A/W/cm2 can currently be established with
the highest accuracy by using detector-based methods [1–6]. Towards increasing the accuracy of photodetectors on a large
extent, the calibration of irradiance responsivity of such detectors is necessary. Spectral responsivity of an optical detector
describes the spectral dependence of its output electrical signal in amperes or volts to the input optical power in watts,
quantified as a quotient of the detector output by a monochromatic radiation input at each wavelength [5,7–10]. In the
visible spectrum uncertainties better than 10−4 in detector responsivity were reported based on the absolute cryogenic
radiometer [7]. At NIS institute, the standard detector used for realizing the spectral irradiance responsivity in the range
from 500 nm to 950 nm is a 3-element silicon photodiode reflection trap detector accompanied with a precision aperture,
designed and fabricated in Hohenheide Inc. in Estonia (see Fig. 1). It was calibrated by the national metrology institute of
Finland, MIKES, traceable to the cryogenic radiometer. The relative expanded uncertainty ranges from 0.5% to 4.0%, depending
on the calibrated wavelength region. The spectral irradiance responsivity of a photodetector is considered as the product of
the spectral power responsivity in A/W by the area of its precision aperture in m2 [6,11–13].
On the other hand, the spectral irradiance responsivity scale at NIS is realized traceable to the calibrated trap detector
using the Hamamatsu S2281 silicon photodiode as a working standard, accompanied also with a precision aperture (see
Fig. 2). This scale is realized in the range from 500 nm to 950 nm in 10 nm steps. The photosensitive area of the photodiodes
was calibrated by using the overfilled irradiance mode, instead of underfilled, for our measurements [2].

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mra.ghazeer@yahoo.com, mra.ghazeer@nis.sci.eg (M. Ghazeer), alaa nis@yahoo.com, alaa.abdelmageed@nis.sci.eg (A. Abdelmageed),
ash02@fayoum.edu.eg (A. Hassen).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2018.04.094
0030-4026/© 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
 M. Ghazeer et al. / Optik 168 (2018) 390–395 391

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram for 3-element reflection trap detector.

Fig. 2. Hamamatsu S2281 silicon photodiode.

Lamp-monochromator based system which consists of quartz tungsten halogen lamp, double monochromator, integrat-
ing sphere and photodetectors is used to measure the absolute spectral irradiance responsivity of Hamamatsu S2281 silicon
photodiode.
The procedure used to transfer the scale from the trap detector to silicon photodiode is so-called substitution method
[11,14,15]. In the direct substitution method, both detectors are located in the same focal plane and translated into the
incident monochromatic beam path. First the trap detector which measures the monochromatic optical power, then the
S2281 photodetector that also makes the same measurement. In this work, various measurements systems were established
in order to develop a standardized radiometric setup for evaluating the absolute spectral irradiance responsivity between
500 nm–950 nm wavelength ranges at NIS.

2. Experimental setup

The experimental setup and instrumentation used to disseminate the absolute spectral irradiance responsivity scale based
on lamp-monochromator system is shown schematically in Fig. 3. Appropriate fore-optics contain a double monochromator,
which produces a monochromatic light, accompanied with an integrating sphere coated by sintered PolyTetraFluoroEthylene
(PTFE) that has high diffuse reflectance in the usable spectral range [16]. This integrating sphere was used to build a uniform,
monochromatic, and quasi-Lambertian source of high spectral radiant flux to improve the uniformity of the radiance at
the exit port. A high intensity source, 1KW Quartz Tungsten Halogen (QTH) lamp, is used in the usable spectral range from
500 nm to 950 nm to get a sufficient output signal in the exit monochromator port and to overcome the radiance losses caused
392 M. Ghazeer et al. / Optik 168 (2018) 390–395

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram for spectral irradiance responsivity facility at NIS.

by fore-optics. The lamp housing contains a rear reflector to increase the output power, and a focusing lens for alignment
purposes [17]. QTH lamps are often used as transfer standard of spectral irradiance, as they have long-time stability and well
reproducibility [18].
In our setup, the radiation of a QTH lamp is introduced into the entrance slit of the double monochromator through a
concave mirror and a convex lens. Monochromator dispersion by the grating is used as a wavelength tunable-filter to attain
a scanning monochromatic light. The monochromator is accompanied with the integrating sphere in the exit port to obtain
a uniform, monochromatic, and quasi-Lambertian source of high spectral radiant flux. This uniform output field completely
overfills the aperture area either of the trap detector or the S2281 silicon photodiode [2]. A motorized 3D translation stage,
for precise positioning and plan alignment, is used to mount and move the detectors to be compared. In order to minimize
the effect of stray light caused by light scattering, all the equipment are installed in a light tight box, where all the walls
inside were coated with a very good absorbing material black coating to minimize the stray light effect. The low output
signal from the photodetectors is amplified to a higher voltage, using a current-to-voltage transimpedence amplifier with
gain of 106 . The output current from the photodetectors is the measured current signal corrected by the dark and stray light
signals. The output signal ratio of the S2281 silicon photodetector to that of the reference trap detector was calculated. At
each wavelength, the certified value of the spectral irradiance responsivity of the trap detector was finally used to determine
the unknown spectral irradiance responsivity of S2281 silicon photodetector.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Response and irradiance uniformity

The uniformity of the measured irradiated field and the active area of the input optics have to be measured and verified
when a photodetector is intended to perform a high accuracy irradiance measurement; in a condition that the radiation field
should be larger than the active area of the detector or on overfilled mode. A setup was used to evaluate the response and
irradiance uniformity in which the radiant source is a QTH lamp at 546 nm. The active area of the S2281 was placed on a
micro positioning stage to permit displacements along two perpendicular axes in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis.
Horizontal and vertical scans were made through the active area with 2 mm steps. The correction factor for the non-
uniformities, fUnif (), caused by the active area responses of S2281 silicon photodetector, sT (x,y,), the reference trap
detector, sR (x,y,), and the real irradiation field, Ereal (x,y,), was calculated according to the following formula [16,17,19]:
 
ST (x, y, )dA SR (x, y, )Ereal (x, y, )dA
funif () =  ×  (1)
ST (x, y, )Ereal (x, y, )dA SR (x, y, )dA

Results show that the irradiation field coming from the QTH source, through the integrating sphere, gave a highly uni-
form irradiation field (∼
=96%) (see Fig. 4). On the other hand, the response uniformity with 1 mm spot of the S2281 silicon
photodetector showed a reliable good uniformity (∼ =52%) (see Fig. 5). In spite of this response uniformity from the S2281
photodetector, the correction factor is nearly unity as there is a highly uniform irradiation throughput field from the integrat-
 M. Ghazeer et al. / Optik 168 (2018) 390–395 393

Fig. 4. Irradiance uniformity of the irradiation field.

Fig. 5. Response uniformity of S2281 Hamamatsu silicon photodiode.

ing sphere in the exit port of the monochromator [16]. The calculated correction factor due to the response and irradiance
uniformity, fUnif (␭), is 0.988.

3.2. Irradiance responsivity scale realization

For the determination of the absolute spectral irradiance responsivity of S2218 photodetector in A/W/cm2 , the simplified
measurement equation used is [6,15]:

VT () GR ()
S T () = SR () f , (2)
VR () GT () Unif

where ST () and SR () are the spectral irradiance responsivity of S2281 photodetector and reference trap detector, respec-
tively. VT () and VR () are the voltage signals of the irradiated S2281 photodetector and reference trap detector converted
by the trans-impedance amplifier with gains GT () and GR (), respectively. fUnif is the correction factor for the non-
uniformities.
Eq. (2) assumes that the reference planes of the S2281 photodetector and trap detector are in the same plane, i.e., that
the defining apertures are located at the same distance from the exit port of the integrating sphere.
The irradiance responsivity realization scale of the S2281 silicon photodetector, sT (␭), for the wavelength range from
500 nm to 950 nm is presented in Fig. 6. The wavelength dependence of the responsivity arises from the wavelength depen-
dence of all optical components of the whole spectroradiometer system, i.e. their transmission and reflection properties;
the double monochromator slit settings and the spectral responsivity of the photodetectors at the output port of the double
monochromator. In the used spectral range a 1200 lines/mm grating (blaze wavelength 750 nm) was used to analyze the
input spectrum of the QTH lamp to its spectral power distribution while the data was collected through the exit slit. The
monochromator bandpass was adjusted nominally at 4 nm resulting slit function uncertainty ±0.34% at k = 2 [20].
The associated uncertainty accompanied with the measurement was evaluated using the Guide to the expression of
Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) method [21]. The combined standard uncertainty was evaluated by combining the
individual standard uncertainties. Components that affect the accuracy of our measurement are considered such as detector
response, aperture area, irradiation non-uniformity, distance, repeatability, linearity, source stability, and double monochro-
mator slit function. . .etc. The expanded uncertainty for the whole wavelength usable range is around ± 2.2% (k = 2), except
above 920 nm it goes to around ±4.5% (k = 2) as the uncertainty component of the trap responsivity much be higher than
that in its low sensitivity region. One also noticed in Fig. 6 that the variation of spectral irradiance responsivity against
wavelength is well fitted by a linear straight line.
394 M. Ghazeer et al. / Optik 168 (2018) 390–395

Fig. 6. Measured spectral irradiance responsivity of S2281 Hamamatsu silicon photodiode in wavelength range from 500 nm to 950 nm.

4. Conclusions

An improvement in the traceability chain for spectral irradiance responsivity, based on trap detector, has been built at
NIS-Egypt metrology institute. The calibration of the setup with the help of the monochromator based setup was described
in this work. The spectral irradiance realization is in principal traceable to the NIS reference trap detector. At present, the
irradiance responsivity calibrations of S2281 silicon photodetector in the spectral range between 500 nm and 950 nm were
realized with its calculated accompanied expanded uncertainty. Thus, this detector-based traceability chain for the spectral
irradiance responsivity calibration has the potential to reduce the measurement uncertainty. This research might have many
applications like a more precise spectral irradiance or illuminance calibration of a variety of light sources and detectors.
Measurement of absolute spectral irradiance responsivity of photodetectors in A/W/cm2 is a fundamental requirement in
both photometric and radiometric applications.

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