PTB Terahertz calibration satisfies US laser manufacturer

Coherent Inc., a world leader in laser technology with headquarters in the USA, and the PTB have joined their expertise in Terahertz technology

This press release is available in German.

		IMAGE: Andreas Steiger, head of the Working Group "Terahertz Radiometry, " checks the beam profile of the Coherent SIFIR-50 laser operated at the new THz calibration facility of PTB. Click here for more information.

Terahertz radiation still lies in a metrological no man's land – a metrology gap. The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) can now close this gap. For the first time, a commercial Terahertz laser was traced back to the international system of units (SI) by measuring its output power absolutely. PTB achieved this success with a power meter which had been calibrated beforehand against a cryogenic radiometer, Germany's primary standard for power measurement of electromagnetic radiation. Therefore, this laser, namely a SIFIR-50 manufactured by the US company Coherent Inc., is the first THz laser in the field with a reliably proven output power enabled by a novel calibration capability set up at the PTB.