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A homogeneous calorimeter uses its showering volume as the active medium, such as a scintillating crystal. It avoids absorber-versus-active sampling fluctuations, but still has signal statistics, intrinsic shower fluctuations, noise and calibration nonuniformity. Its constant and noise terms need not be smaller than those of a sampling calorimeter.

The principal passive-material requirement is a short radiation length in centimetres, normally obtained using a dense, high-atomic-number absorber such as lead or tungsten. It produces and contains an electromagnetic shower in a compact detector. Mechanical construction, transverse spread, cost, radiation tolerance and inactive gaps also affect the choice, but the absorber is selected for shower formation rather than signal production.

Liquid-argon gaps are a suitable active sampling medium. Ionization electrons drift in an electric field and induce a measurable charge signal. Advantages include radiation tolerance, stable response and useful spatial segmentation. Disadvantages include cryogenic infrastructure, high-voltage and purity requirements, signal collection times and electronic-noise control. Only the active fraction is measured directly, so fluctuations of energy shared between absorber and active gaps introduce a sampling contribution to the resolution. A high active fraction and fine sampling help, at the price of construction complexity and additional channels.

For independent contributions the parametrization meansThe stochastic coefficient $A$ includes fluctuations in the sampled shower fraction, the finite number of signal quanta, and intrinsic shower fluctuations. A number of detected quanta proportional to $E$ has fluctuations proportional to $\sqrt{E}$, giving relative resolution proportional to $E^{-1/2}$. The noise coefficient $B$ describes an approximately fixed energy-equivalent readout uncertainty, including electronic noise and, for specified running conditions, Pile-up contributions. The constant term $C$ represents residual fractional nonuniformity, calibration and response variations, imperfect correction for inactive material, and leakage effects over the fitted range. The simple three-term model is an approximation; leakage and Pile-up need not follow these powers exactly.

A homogeneous calorimeter uses the showering material itself as the active medium, for example a scintillating crystal. It removes the absorber-versus-active sampling fluctuation and can have a much smaller stochastic term, but it does not eliminate signal statistics or intrinsic shower fluctuations. Its noise and constant terms are not automatically smaller: they depend on light collection, calibration, temperature, radiation damage, electronics and geometry. Homogeneous detectors can offer excellent energy resolution and compact construction, but large crystal volumes can be costly and fine longitudinal segmentation difficult. Sampling detectors often provide economical large coverage and flexible segmentation with robust absorbers, at the cost of sampling fluctuations and inactive material. If energy is expressed in GeV, $A$ has units ${\mathrm{GeV}}^{1/2}$, $B$ has units GeV and $C$ is dimensionless.

A sampling calorimeter alternates passive shower-forming material with active signal layers. Only part of the deposited energy is measured directly. Fluctuations of that fraction contribute a stochastic energy-resolution term. Fine segmentation and robust absorbers can be economical, while fine sampling and a larger active fraction generally improve resolution.