Intercomparison of bidirectional reflectance distribution function measurements at in- and out-of-plane geometries

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the measurements of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) in industry and research and development. However, there is currently no dedicated key comparison to demonstrate the scale conformity. To date, scale conformity has been proved only for classical in-plane geometries, in comparisons between different national metrology institutes (NMIs) and designated institutes (DIs). This study aims at expanding that with nonclassical geometries, including, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, two out-of-plane geometries. A total of four NMIs and two DIs participated in a scale comparison of the BRDF measurements of three achromatic samples at 550 nm in five measurement geometries. The realization of the scale of BRDF is a well-understood procedure, as explained in this paper, but the comparison of the measured values presents slight inconsistencies in some geometries, most likely due to the underestimation of measurement uncertainties. This underestimation was revealed and indirectly quantified using the Mandel–Paule method, which provides the interlaboratory uncertainty. The results from the presented comparison allow the present state of the BRDF scale realization to be evaluated, not only for classical in-plane geometries, but also for out-of-plane geometries.