Sub-^∘C-precision temperature imaging using phase-shift luminescence thermometry

Abstract This work explores the potential of luminescence thermometry to provide temperature imaging with high temperature resolution using the phase-shift method. Phosphor thermometry has been widely used for temperature imaging, especially with the decay-time method. However, the phase-shift method was rarely used. In this approach, excitation is modulated in time, and due to the temperature-dependent luminescence dynamics of the painted luminescent probe, the emission waveform is phase-shifted with respect to the excitation waveform. Initially, a parametric study was performed on the effect of excitation waveform frequency and shape, based on a millisecond-decay time phosphor. The study found that the best precision is achieved with a square waveform at a frequency such that the phase shift is <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mfrac> <mml:mi>π</mml:mi> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:mfrac> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> at the target temperature. Then, this method was compared with the well-established decay-time method. Phase-shift method offered a three-fold improvement in temperature precision under identical peak excitation power. Finally, two-dimensional measurements were demonstrated on a temperature-controlled plate using a high speed CMOS camera, and an LED illumination. A temperature precision of 0.13 ∘ C was obtained at a temporal resolution of 0.25 s and a spatial resolution of around 1 mm, due to a pre-processing binning of 7 by 7 pixels. This technique can be used as a robust alternative to infrared thermometry to probe the thermal processes with small temperature differences.