Use of a general purpose integrating sphere as a low intensity near-UV extended uniform light source

Abstract

Nowadays, the need for extended uniform light sources increases in many different areas of optics. Integrating spheres show one of the best properties among them. The paper is focused on verification of the practical use of so-called general purpose integrating spheres for the purpose of the calibration of highly sensitive detectors in the near-UV spectrum. To achieve this, the summarization of the theory of the integrating spheres is given, the methodology of the measurement is described and a universal experimental setup is designed. The setup is able to measure the real spatial and angular radiance uniformity of the exit port of selected representative of integrating spheres. The results of radiance uniformity measurements are graphically presented and discussed.