Fundamental principles of photosensing

This chapter discusses the fundamental theory behind photosensing and imaging. It starts with a brief overview of the human vision system, and continues with the basic ideas behind photometry and radiometry used as radiation measuring systems. Next, it presents a brief history of phototransduction explaining the origins of solid-state photosensing through the development of quantum mechanics and the different applications of the photoelectric effect, and mentions some important developments in the field of photodetectors prior to silicon based microelectronics.