Head to Head: Photonic Pressure Sensors vs. Mercury-Based Standard

NIST PML FLOC project.
PML's Jacob Ricker with the FLOCs and the mercury manometer.

When a team of researchers at NIST’s Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) first tested a new kind of pressure sensor two years ago, initial results showed it was faster and had higher resolution than the traditional, centuries-old mercury-based method for measuring pressure. The novel device, called the Fixed Length Optical Cavity (FLOC), works by detecting subtle changes in the frequency of light passing through a nitrogen gas-filled cavity about the size of a box of tissues. Continue Reading >> http://www.nist.gov/pml/div685/grp01/head-to-head-photonic-pressure-sensors-vs-mercury-based-standard.cfm