Minimum detectable signal for spectrogram displays

High-speed deformation of soft lithographic nanograting patterns for ultrasensitive optical spectroscopy

“…14 To prove the high sensitivity, we calculated and measured the minimum detectable signal ͑MDS͒. With the PMT's gain at maximum, the minimum detectable output is determined by the mean plus one standard deviation of the PMT output voltage noise floor, 15 which includes dark counts of the PMT, stray light, and other noise sources of the system. The radiant flux that would produce this output value is calculated using the PMT sensitivity and grating efficiency.…”