Ophir Optronics Ltd QSR Manuel D’Utilisation

This chapter provides an overview of thermopile heads and instructions for 
taking measurements with the thermopile head. Topics include: 

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Ophir thermopile heads measure both power and single shot energy. When a 
radiant heat source, such as a laser, is directed at the absorber head aperture, a 
temperature gradient is created across the thermopile of the enclosed detector 
disc. This generates a voltage proportional to the incident power.  

The instrument amplifies this signal and indicates the power level received by 
the head. At the same time, the signal-processing software enables the instrument 
to respond faster than the thermal rise time of the detector disc, reducing the 
response time of instrument. The energy of a single pulse is measured by 
digitally integrating the pulse power over time. 

For a more detailed description of the principles of operation of Ophir thermopile 
heads, refer to the Ophir Optronics catalog, available for download from 
http://www.ophiropt.com. 

If you are planning to repeat similar measurements, you can configure the 
settings for each individual head, and save them to the instrument. The saved 
settings become the default configuration for that channel, and are displayed 
every time the channel is opened.  

The following sections describe how to select the measurement mode, how to 
configure measurement settings for thermopile heads and how to save them as 
the default configuration for that channel. The measurement setting fields differ 
for power and energy modes.