A Fast Laser Polarimeter Improving a Microsecond Pulse Heating System

The microsecond pulse heating system has been used for more than 15 years to investigate thermophysical properties of solid and liquid metals and alloys. The only way to measure temperature in the time and temperature range of these experiments (duration of a few tens of microseconds, temperatures up to 7000 K) is optical pyrometry. The radiance temperature can be measured very accurately. However, to obtain true temperature from radiance temperature the normal spectral emissivity at the wavelength of iInterest of the material under investigation has to be known. Because normal spectral emissivity measurements on pulse heated liquid metals were not possible in the past, an assumption about the behavior of the emissivity in the liquid phase had to be made, which increased the uncertainty of the temperature determination. To overcome this limitation in temperature measurement, a microsecond division of amplitude polarimeter (m-DOAP) was added to the pulse heating system. The normal spectral emissivity at 684.5 nm is derived from the measured change in the state of polarization of laser light that is reflected off the sample surface. The working principle of this polarimeter system is preseInted, and experimental results of the normal spectral emissivity at 684.5 nm as a function of radiance temperature at 650 nm are discussed.