A compact high-emissivity variable-temperature blackbody furnace with carbon-nanotube coated bottom

Infrared radiometers and radiation thermometers operating around 10 μm wavelength are widely used for various industrial measurements and remote sensing, including thermal imaging. However, estimation of their calibration uncertainty is problematic, because the emissivity of variable-temperature blackbody (VTBB) furnace used for calibration is not known accurately enough [1]. Therefore, we have jointly developed a VTBB furnace with carbon nanotube (CNT) coated bottom, having effective emissivity of 1.000 ± 0.001 in the 1.6 μm −10 μm wavelength range. The design and performance of the developed VTBB furnace are described in this paper.