Temperature measurement of high performance radiant emitters

A procedure is described to determine the effective temperature of high performance emissive structures. The method is especially suitable for the evaluation of fibrous ceramic emitters. including selective IR emitters for applications in thermophotovoltaic systems. The measuring procedure, furthermore, does not contribute insertion errors nor disturb the operating emitter. Although inexact, this simple measurement technique predicts the maximum error expected which, in most cases, is acceptable.