Comparison of a Joule effect calibration system using Kanthal wire and a laser diode as heat sources

Here it is presented a comparison of two calibration techniques applied to a thermistor element used in a surface microcalorimeter which operates under Isoperibol conditions. Usually surface microcalorimeters employ a thermistor as a temperature sensing element, whose heat capacity requires to be evaluated before they can be used. One alternative method to estimate its heat capacity is by supplying a known amount of energy and detecting its temperature changes. Thus, surface heating can be achieved by different techniques; one of them is by supplying energy to the thermistor by passing current through a Ni-Cr coil wined around the glass bulb thermistor. A rather different and more convenient technique consists of directly illuminating a small well-defined thermistor area with an infrared 1550 nm wavelength laser beam, while detecting the thermistor temperature changes. Both procedures are thoroughly compared and the heat capacities obtained by both methods are presented.