6 ms·
Purely as a matter of esoteric interest, does anyone know of any affordable photon counting devices?
by throwaway8503 3y ago
Purely as a matter of esoteric interest, does anyone know of any affordable photon counting devices?
- CyberDildonics 3y agoDo you mean a camera?
- throwaway8503 3y agoIf there's a way to get an integer value on the number of photons per cell in a camera sensor, let me know
- milleramp 3y agoNo but there is a way to get integer values for the photo-electrons per pixel.
- throwaway8503 3y agoI suppose there would be a rough conversion between that value and photon count (at some wavelength range). I just imagine the error bars to be very wide.
- tigershark 3y agoNot really, it depends from the application. Even something like 20 years ago the CCDs available at the time were capable of astrometric measure of star magnitudes with 1/100 of magnitude precision using some control stars.
- CyberDildonics 3y agoYou realize that light is actually electromagnetic radiation and there is no such thing as a physical photon right?
- throwaway8503 3y agoI think you're sort of half right
- danans 3y agoAren't you being very particular? Just wave the mistake off, I say.
- Timon3 3y agoEverything in our universe is made up of waves. Does it really matter whether it's an oscillation in one field or another? Photons are discrete systems, can you clearly differentiate why anything else in the universe is "physical"?
- CyberDildonics 3y agoPhotons as an idea can make simulation easier, but it matters if someone is trying to 'count photons' and they don't exist.
- Timon3 3y agoHow so? My understand is that a photon is a discrete packet of energy. Why can't I count those? If there is an excitation in the electromagnetic field, and then there is not, and then there is one - why are those not separate, countable photons?
- CyberDildonics 3y agoYou realize you're now just making up your own definition for a photon on top of what actually exists right?
- Timon3 3y agoNo, I'm asking questions. I literally said (albeit with a typo) "my understanding is". Where am I making up a definition? You're free to show everyone my stupidity by answering my questions.
- acidburnNSA 3y agoOnly for high energy photons. https://gammaspectacular.com/ https://gammaspectacular.com/
- handsclean 3y agoI think you’re looking for a lux meter. Precision is far rougher than single photons, but good enough for any human-scale use. It’s what you’d use for things like calibrating indoor lighting, quantifying the difference between a sunny day and moonlit night, or testing flashlights. Last I checked a good basic one was under $40.