radiometer, instrument for detecting or measuring radiant energy. The term is applied in particular to devices used to measure infrared radiation. Radiometers are of various types that differ in their method of measurement or detection. Those that function by means of an increase in the temperature of the device, such as Herschel’s thermometer, are called thermal detectors. Commonly used thermal detectors include the thermocouple, which produces a voltage when heated, and the bolometer, which undergoes a change in electrical resistance when heated. Devices that can, in principle, detect a singular quantum of radiant energy, such as Becquerel’s photographic plate, are called quantum detectors. The photoelectric cell is the basis of many current quantum detectors.
The term radiometer is often used to refer specifically to a type of detector invented by Sir William Crookes in the late 1800s. It is rarely used as a scientific instrument, because it was found to be insensitive and not easily calibrated, but it paved the way for the more exact instruments in use today. A Crookes radiometer consists of a glass bulb from which most of the air has been removed, thereby creating a partial vacuum, and a rotor that is mounted on a vertical support inside the bulb. The rotor bears four light, horizontal arms mounted at right angles to one another on a central pivot; the rotor can turn freely in the horizontal plane. At the outer end of each arm is mounted a vertical metal vane. Each vane has one side polished and the other side blackened; the vanes are arranged so that the polished side of one faces the blackened side of the next. When radiant energy strikes the polished surfaces, most of it is reflected away, but when it strikes the blackened surface, most of it is absorbed, raising the temperature of those surfaces. The air near a blackened surface is thus heated and exerts a pressure on the blackened surface, causing the rotor to turn.