Evaluating the inequivalence and a computational simplification for the NBS laser energy standards.

A model with two time constants is used to estimate the inequivalence in response between a laser energy pulse and an electrical energy pulse put into a calorimeter of the C series type. The results are as follows: the calorimeter labeled C41 showed a 0.15% inequivalence and the calorimeter labeled C46 showed none. We also find that the complicated model currently used to get the corrected temperature rise of a measurement can be replaced by a simpler four-data-point method with no significant loss in accuracy. This simplification means we can substitute a microprocessor for a large computer to get the corrected temperature rise in an electrical calibration or laser energy measurement.