Primary calibration of ultrasonic hydrophone using optical interferometry

A primary calibration method for ultrasonic hydrophones which uses a Michelson interferometer to determine the particle displacement in an ultrasonic field is discussed. The acoustic pressure is derived from this measurement and used to determine the free-field sensitivity of a hydrophone in the frequency range 0.5-15 MHz. The random uncertainty of the method is typically 1%, whereas the systematic uncertainty varies from 2.3 to 6.6% over the frequency range. To obtain this accuracy, the performance of the system has been carefully examined and appropriate correction factors derived. The greatest difficulty in the method lies in determining the frequency response of the optical detection system, and two different approaches have been used to measure this response. Several acoustical effects have also been studied and the calibration procedure modified to take account of them. The calibration results are in agreement with those of other methods and with the theoretically predicted frequency response of a hydrophone. The method has been used to determine the temporal stability of a hydrophone over a period of two years.