1. Detector characterization

1.1 Definitions

The detectors studied here are sensors responsible for transforming optical information (which is always energy), ephemeral in nature, into storable information accessible to our senses. The optical input information is the excitation, the output information is the response. All the examples we will cite relate to an electrical response, but we will see that there are cases where the response is thermal, optical or mechanical (table 2 ).

In these photoelectric detectors, the term is taken in its most general sense: the excitation...