l***@gmail.com
2017-05-11 20:11:07 UTC
Dear all,
It's a practical as well as a theoretical question.
There are some conditions where light signal that we need to detect is below the detector noise. I was guessing if it is possible in some conditions, to add a controlled constant background light (which would act as an offset), so that the total signal gets higher than the detector threshold detection limit.
Linked to this question, is it possible that a photodetector (including the sensor and the attached electronics)can't detect, let's say 0.1 mWatt light out of the dark (because of it's dark current or other kind of noise), but can resolve between 1 mW and 1.1 mW.
Of course I'm aware that background light would carry an associated photon shot noise, and the trick would be to add a minimum amount of background just to get above the detector noise level.
Thanks,
Eric
It's a practical as well as a theoretical question.
There are some conditions where light signal that we need to detect is below the detector noise. I was guessing if it is possible in some conditions, to add a controlled constant background light (which would act as an offset), so that the total signal gets higher than the detector threshold detection limit.
Linked to this question, is it possible that a photodetector (including the sensor and the attached electronics)can't detect, let's say 0.1 mWatt light out of the dark (because of it's dark current or other kind of noise), but can resolve between 1 mW and 1.1 mW.
Of course I'm aware that background light would carry an associated photon shot noise, and the trick would be to add a minimum amount of background just to get above the detector noise level.
Thanks,
Eric