Measurement & Detection

Photodiode physics and practice — PN/PIN/APD structures, responsivity, noise, readout electronics, calibration, and detector selection.

PMT physics and practice — photocathode materials, dynode gain, noise and SNR, timing, operating modes, voltage dividers, and detector selection.

Scientific camera systems — cooling, readout electronics, data interfaces, triggering, characterization, and application-specific configurations.

CCD and CMOS sensor physics — pixel architecture, noise, QE, dynamic range, binning, cooling, shutters, EMCCD, ICCD, sCMOS, and sensor selection.

Optical power and energy measurement — photodiode, thermopile, pyroelectric, and calorimetric sensors. Calibration, traceability, and measurement techniques.

Integrating sphere theory, design, and applications — sphere multiplier, coating materials, reflectance/transmittance measurement, total flux, and uniform radiance sources.

Interferometric measurement — two-beam and multiple-beam interference, Michelson, Mach–Zehnder, Fabry–Pérot, Fizeau architectures, phase-shifting techniques, error analysis, and selection.

Spectrometer types, diffraction grating theory, spectral resolution, Czerny-Turner design, detectors, calibration, fiber coupling, and instrument selection.

Cross-cutting detector comparison — responsivity, noise, NEP, detectivity, gain mechanisms, and systematic selection by wavelength, signal level, and speed.