NIST - National Institute of Standards and Technology
01/20/2026 | Press release | Archived content
Improved Ultraviolet Measurement Capabilities of NIST's Reference Transmittance Spectrophotometer
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has maintained and operated custom-built reference instruments to establish the national scale for regular spectral transmittance for more than 50 years. In this paper, we report on improvements to the performance of NIST's current iteration of the reference instrument, the reference transmittance spectrophotometer (RTS), in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible spectral range. The improvements include the installation of a new UV source for increased spectral radiance and a monitor line for a reduced noise-to-signal ratio. A new uncertainty budget and validation measurements are presented. A reduction of uncertainties by 70% or more is achieved for UV wavelengths.
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Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at this time but may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.
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NIST - National Institute of Standards and Technology published this content on January 20, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on January 23, 2026 at 09:19 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]