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Spectral sensitivity is the relative efficiency of detection, of light or other signal, as a function of the frequency or wavelength of the signal. In visual neuroscience, spectral sensitivity is used to describe the different characteristics of the photopigments in the rod cells and cone cells in the retina of the eye.
A consequence of Wien's displacement law is that the wavelength at which the intensity per unit wavelength of the radiation produced by a black body has a local maximum or peak, , is a function only of the temperature: =, where the constant b, known as Wien's displacement constant, is equal to + 2.897 771 955 × 10 −3 m K. [31]
The 41.8% point is the wavelength-frequency-neutral peak (i.e. the peak in power per unit change in logarithm of wavelength or frequency). These are the points at which the respective Planck-law functions 1 / λ 5 , ν 3 and ν 2 / λ 2 , respectively, divided by exp ( hν / k B T ) − 1 attain their maxima.
Action spectra are typically written as unit-less responses with peak response of one, and it is also important to distinguish if an action spectrum refers to quanta at each wavelength (mol or log-photons), or to spectral power (W). It shows which wavelength of light is most effectively used in a specific chemical reaction.
Longer-wavelength radiation such as visible light is nonionizing; the photons do not have sufficient energy to ionize atoms. Throughout most of the electromagnetic spectrum, spectroscopy can be used to separate waves of different frequencies, so that the intensity of the radiation can be measured as a function of frequency or wavelength.
Mathematically, for the spectral power distribution of a radiant exitance or irradiance one may write: =where M(λ) is the spectral irradiance (or exitance) of the light (SI units: W/m 2 = kg·m −1 ·s −3); Φ is the radiant flux of the source (SI unit: watt, W); A is the area over which the radiant flux is integrated (SI unit: square meter, m 2); and λ is the wavelength (SI unit: meter, m).
The rate at which EM energy is detected by the detector is measured. This measured rate is then divided by Δλ to obtain the detected power per square metre per unit wavelength range. Spectral flux density is often used as the quantity on the y-axis of a graph representing the spectrum of a light-source, such as a star.
The frequency of light used in the definition corresponds to a wavelength in a vacuum of 555 nm, which is near the peak of the eye's response to light. If the 1 candela source emitted uniformly in all directions, the total radiant flux would be about 18.40 mW , since there are 4 π steradians in a sphere.