The past decade saw the emergence of new temperature sensors that have the potential to disrupt a century-old measurement infrastructure based on resistance thermometry. In this review we present an overview of emerging technologies that are either in the earliest stages of metrological assessment or in the earliest stages of commercial development and thus merit further consideration by the measurement community. The following emerging technologies are reviewed: Johnson noise thermometry, optical refractive-index gas thermometry, Doppler line broadening thermometry, optomechanical thermometry, fiber-coupled phosphor thermometry, fiber-optic thermometry based on Rayleigh, Brillouin and Raman scattering, fiber-Bragg-grating thermometry, Bragg-waveguide-grating thermometry, ring-resonator thermometry, and photonic-crystal-cavity thermometry. For each emerging technology, we explain the working principle, highlight the best known performance, list advantages and drawbacks of the new temperature sensor and present possibilities for future developments.

High-temperature-resistant fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) are the main competitors to thermocouples as sensors in applications for high temperature environments defined as being in the 600–1200 °C temperature range. Due to their small size, capacity to be multiplexed into high density distributed sensor arrays and survivability in extreme ambient temperatures, they could provide the essential sensing support that is needed in high temperature processes. While capable of providing reliable sensing information in the short term, their long-term functionality is affected by the drift of the characteristic Bragg wavelength or resonance that is used to derive the temperature. A number of physical processes have been proposed as the cause of the high temperature wavelength drift but there is yet no credible description of this process. In this paper we review the literature related to the long-term wavelength drift of FBGs at high temperature and provide our recent results of more than 4000 h of high temperature testing in the 900–1000 °C range. We identify the major components of the high temperature wavelength drift and we propose mechanisms that could be causing them.

In recent years photonic thermometers—temperature sensors based on optical frequency measurement which exploit the thermo-optic effect to translate thermal changes into frequency shifts—are gaining popularity as a possible alternative to their electrical counterparts: platinum resistance thermometers and thermocouples. In this work, we report our results of testing photonic thermometers based on silica fiber-Bragg-grating technology supplied by a commercial company, as well as preliminary testing results of a silicon ring-resonator thermometer developed at the National Research Council of Canada. The main purpose of showing these two examples is to highlight some of the challenges that need to be addressed if photonic thermometers are to replace thermocouples or platinum resistance thermometers in metrology laboratories and other environments where high accuracy and stability are required, namely the influence of packaging on the sensor’s performance and the need for rigorous testing to be done in a temperature metrology lab.

Main text: This is the final report of CCT-K7.2021 key comparison of water-triple-point (TPW) cells. The primary objective of CCT-K7.2021 was a comparison of the participant national realizations of the TPW temperature. Each participant laboratory selected one of its TPW cells for use as a transfer cell, directly compared it against its national reference and delivered it to the pilot (NRC). The pilot then compared all transfer cells against two NRC reference cells and, finally, each participant laboratory retrieved its transfer cell and directly re-compared it against its TPW national reference. The initial measurements at the participant laboratories were started in April 2021. The final measurements at the participants' laboratories were completed in September 2022. The final report was approved by the CCT WG-KC in April 2023. The adaptive weighted average procedure was adopted to compute the Key Comparison Reference Value (KCRV) and the degrees of equivalence (DoEs) were reported for the participant laboratories. The maximum difference between two transfer cells was 92 μK with a standard deviation of 26 µK (almost a factor of two improvement compared to CCT-K7 results (2002-2004). The maximum difference between two TPW national realizations was 111 µK, with a standard deviation of 28 µK (improvement similar to the one reported for the transfer cells). While the pooled distribution of CCT-K7 results was bimodal, indicating the presence of two different sub-populations (the population of laboratories that referred to ocean water definition and the population of laboratories that did not consider it), the pooled distribution of CCT-K7.2021 results was no longer bimodal, but slightly asymmetrical, indicating a more harmonized approach to water isotopic corrections. To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database https://www.bipm.org/kcdb/. The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCT, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).