Detecting infrared radiation with a phototransistor and an IR filter

Physics Teacher

Volumn 42, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 83-85

  Lee, Edward V ^a  

^a American Physical Society   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85007524794     PISSN: 0031921X     EISSN: 19434928     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.1646482     Document Type: Article

References (11)

1. For a recent article on a different method of detecting infrared light, see Erin Pursell and Richard Kozlowski, "Infrared radiation: Herschel revisited," Phys. Teach. 38, 559 (Dec. 2000).
2. Andrew Davidhazy, "Making an improvised infrared transmitting filter," http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-infrared-filter.html.
3. Jay Huebner and N. Sundaralingam, "Remote controls for infrared experiments," Am. J. Phys. 66, 544 (June 1998).
4. The phototransistor output depends on the spectrum of sunlight reaching the surface of Earth. See "Solar spectrum, variability and atmospheric absorption," http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/images/sunbathing/sunspectrum.htm. This spectrum reaches its maximum at a wavelength of about 0.5 microns.
5. The phototransistor output also depends on the dispersion of glass, which is a nonlinear function of wavelength in the red and near infrared. See Tom Chester, "Reconciling the Herschel experiment," http://sd.znet.com/~schester/calculations/herschel/index.html
6. E. Hecht, Optics (Addison-Wesley, New York, 2001), p. 72.
7. Adapted with permission from Michael Bacon and Stafford Baines, "Interactive Digital Electronics," http://www.thiel.edu/digitalelectronics/chapters/apph_html/apph.htm.
8. Adapted from a spectrum supplied in a private communication by Larry Woolf of General Atomics, San Diego, CA.
9. James O'Connell, "Decoding the TV remote control," Phys. Teach. 38, 6 (Jan. 2000).
10. Ernie McFarland and Tom Kehn, "Seeing infrared," Phys. Teach. 38, 314 (May 2000).
11. See Ref. 3.