The statistics for the detection of light by nonideal photomultipliers
- 1 August 1974
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics
- Vol. 10 (8) , 590-596
- https://doi.org/10.1109/jqe.1974.1068206
Abstract
The detection of low-level optical frequency radiation, such as that encountered in laser communication systems, is often accomplished with a photomultiplier tube. The photomultiplication process, however, is itself a random process. In this paper a formula for the statistics of the number of electrons afterkstages is derived in the form of a recurrence relation. A Polya distribution is assumed as a model for each stage, and the probability of error for a laser communication system is examined in terms of the Polyab-parameter and the gain per stage. A simple closed-form expression for the decibel loss as a function of the photomultiplier parameters is also derived.Keywords
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