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Summary
The NIST Laser Power and Energy Meter Calibration Project develops and maintains the U.S. national standards for the characterization of laser power and energy instruments. We are here to serve you; and would like to encourage you to reach out to our technical staff Matthew.Spidell [at] nist.gov (Matthew[dot]Spidell[at]nist[dot]gov), Kyle.Rogers [at] nist.gov (Kyle[dot]Rogers[at]nist[dot]gov), Sonia.Buckley [at] nist.gov (Sonia[dot]Buckley[at]nist[dot]gov), and Brian.Simonds [at] nist.gov (Brian[dot]Simonds[at]nist[dot]gov) with technical questions related to measurement science, standards, and technology.
Description
Figure 1. A chart showing the various sectors served by the Laser Power & Energy Meter calibrations project as of 2025.
We serve Industry, DoD, and research institutions by calibrating instruments used to measure the power or energy emitted by a laser, or single photon source. From Single Photons to Kilowatts, Longwave Infrared to Deep Ultraviolet, Free-space and Fiber, we can calibrate your instruments. The chart to the right depicts the variety of technical sectors we support.
The Sources and Detectors Group operate an ensemble of primary and secondary standards including calorimeters, pyroelectric detectors, thermal radiometers, photodiode traps and superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD). We have worked with every type of customer instrument, ranging from the latest pre-production hardware to legacy instruments from OEM’s no-longer in operation and custom-built one-off detector systems.
Our well-characterized standards are traceable to the SI through an ISO17025 accredited process. Our calibrations are foundational to most laser power and energy instrument manufacturers. There is generally no laboratory offering better precision than what we offer. In a continuing process, new standards are developed and implemented to expand and improve service capabilities.
Our many calibration services for laser power and energy instruments available at the NIST Store. In addition, the Applied Physics Division conducts research on a variety of problems in the characterization of optoelectronics components. Consequently, we are interested in discussing and supporting all measurements involving laser detectors, sources, components, and instrumentation. We would like to encourage you to reach out to our technical staff Matthew.Spidell [at] nist.gov (Matthew[dot]Spidell[at]nist[dot]gov), Kyle.Rogers [at] nist.gov (Kyle[dot]Rogers[at]nist[dot]gov), Sonia.Buckley [at] nist.gov (Sonia[dot]Buckley[at]nist[dot]gov), and Brian.Simonds [at] nist.gov (Brian[dot]Simonds[at]nist[dot]gov) with technical questions related to measurement science, standards, and technology.