Primary thermometry for in-situ traceability

Practical, portable temperature sensors drift during use and require periodic calibration against a 'primary' (stand-alone, accurate) thermometer to ensure on-going reliability. We aim to develop a portable, optically based one using Doppler Broadening thermometry (DBT). This provides traceable temperature measurement in-situ in, for example sensor networks, to assure autonomy in a totally new way. For "digitisation" DBT will yield temperature traceability at the point of measurement, for "net zero" DBT will improve industrial process control (many of which rely on thermal processing but run sub-optimally due to temperature sensor drift). Solving this issue will optimise, and hence lower, power consumption whilst giving the added benefits of zero waste and consistent product quality. We will establish DBT as a new UK research activity and aim to scale macroscopic DBT approaches to practical sensor size (~cm) using small optical cells filled with atomic and/or molecular species