Demonstration of a Transportable Fabry–Pérot Refractometer by a Ring-Type Comparison of Dead-Weight Pressure Balances at Four European National Metrology Institutes

Abstract

Fabry–Pérot-based refractometry has demonstrated the ability to assess gas pressure with high accuracy and has been prophesized to be able to realize the SI unit for pressure, the pascal, based on quantum calculations of the molar polarizabilities of gases. So far, the technology has mostly been limited to well-controlled laboratories. However, recently, an easy-to-use transportable refractometer has been constructed. Although its performance has previously been assessed under well-controlled laboratory conditions, to assess its ability to serve as an actually transportable system, a ring-type comparison addressing various well-characterized pressure balances in the 10–90 kPa range at several European national metrology institutes is presented in this work. It was found that the transportable refractometer is capable of being transported and swiftly set up to be operational with retained performance in a variety of environments. The system could also verify that the pressure balances used within the ring-type comparison agree with each other. These results constitute an important step toward broadening the application areas of FP-based refractometry technology and bringing it within reach of various types of stakeholders, not least within industry.