Vision and the single photon

Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan

doi:10.1117/12.613055

4 August 2005 Vision and the single photon

Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan

Proceedings Volume 5866, The Nature of Light: What Is a Photon?; (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.613055
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The human visual system has an amazing sensitivity-even a single photon catch can trigger the release of a signal in a rod photoreceptor cell under certain circumstances. However, behaviorally it requires on an average 5-8 photons for a human to "see" a flash of light. This discrepancy is due to the intrinsic "dark noise" in the visual system. Various aspects of human visual sensitivity to single photons are reviewed and discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan "Vision and the single photon", Proc. SPIE 5866, The Nature of Light: What Is a Photon?, (4 August 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.613055

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