Photodetector
Measures qualitative ray signal, spectrum, polarization, and spot span.
Open in the canvas →In the real world
A real photodetector converts incident optical power to an electrical photocurrent with some responsivity R (amps per watt), set by the detector's quantum efficiency η — the fraction of incident photons that produce a collected charge carrier:
In OpticalSetup
The detector reports a qualitative relative signal — the sum of every ray's intensity reaching its front face — plus the spectrum, polarization state, and spot extent of whatever light arrives, all read directly off the traced rays. This is genuinely useful for seeing whether light reaches a detector, roughly how strong it is relative to other configurations, and what its spectral or polarization content is.
The reported signal is not calibrated to any real unit — there is no watts-in, amps-out responsivity curve, no dark current, no saturation physics beyond what's explicitly modeled on the PMT variant. Treat the number as relative, not absolute.