Design and construction of a gallium fixed-point blackbody at CENAM

For temperatures below silver fixed-point defined by the International Temperature Scale of 1990, a transfer radiation thermometer can be calibrated using either of two calibration schemes: a variable temperature blackbody with a standard platinum resistance thermometer as a reference, or with a set of fixed-point blackbodies. CENAM is presently working with the first scheme, and it is developing fixed-point blackbodies to have the capability to work with the second scheme too. For this purpose a gallium fixed-point blackbody to calibrate CENAM transfer radiation thermometer was designed and constructed. The blackbody cavity has a cylinder-cone shape with effective emissivity equal to 0.9992±0.0004 in the 8 μm to 14 μm wavelength range. The radiance temperature of the gallium fixed-point blackbody was estimated to have and expanded uncertainty of 54 m K, with a coverage factor k = 2. (Author)