UDK 621.

383

THE METROLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A PHOTON COUNTER

Vetokhin Siarhei1
serega49@mail.ru
1
Belarusian State Technological University, Belarus

Phone number: +375 44 714 0247

Е-mail: veto@belstu.by

Abstract
A photon counter includes a photodetector, which is able to convert single photons into
electrical pulses, and some electronic circuits to treat such the pulses that means their
amplification, selection and counting. A light signal that is the matter of detection by a photon
counter has the statistical origin that is mainly under Poisson distribution in the case of stationary
signals. So, the accuracy of detection is limited by the statistical fluctuations, and the standard
deviation is equal to square root of the number of the emitted within the interval of observation
photons. If the signal is accompanied with some light background it is necessary to spend a part
of observation time to define this background and substract it from the mix of different origin
photons. The additional errors are contributed by the photon counter: it photodetector has limited
quantum efficiency and it generates some noise background due to thermionic and ions emission
as well as light and radio luminescence and fluorescence of materials. Some losses are available
in the electronic circuits, also. In the deal with these factors their analysis is provided in this
article as well as their impact to the accuracy (signal-to-noise ratio was chosen as the accuracy
indicator) of weak optical signals measurements by a photon counter is calculated.

Keywords: drying, moisture content, moisture evaporation, dried plum, ascorbic acid.

1. Introduction
Increasing demand for high quality dried products requires the development, modeling,
and further optimization of the drying process, not only for the effectiveness of the process, but
also to ensure the quality of the final product.
Plums, as well as other fruits and berries that grow in southern Kazakhstan in large
numbers, are a source of biologically useful substances [1,2].
2. Materials and methods
In order to investigate the process of drying plums, it was used the most widespread in
the South Kazakhstan region cultivar of late ripening period - Vengerka domestic [13]. In this,
based on the sensory analysis, it was collected matured samples without any structural
deformation.

3. Results and discussion

The experimental data in graphical form of relationships between the content of moisture

and drying time, and the curve of dynamics of evaporation from the surface of plum are shown

in Figures 1 and 2.
Analysis of the data in tab.1 shows that the sensory quality of dried plum meets the
requirements of dried stone fruit with GOST 28501-90 [13].
 4.Conclusions
Thus, on the basis of the research it was concluded that the application of the proposed
method of drying in practice provides a better quality product with the conservation of biological
nutrients.

References
1. Rop Otakar,   Jurikova Tunde, Jiri Mlcek, Daniela Kramarova,  Zultsetseg Sengee.
Antioxidant activity and selected nutritional values of plums (Prunus domestica L.) typical
of the White Carpathian Mountains. //  Sci. Hortic., 122 (4), 2009. – P. 545-549.
2. Vasantha Ropasinghe, H.P. Jayasamkar, S.Lazy.Variation in total phenolic and antioxidant
activity among European plum genotypes. //  Sci. Hortic., 108, 2006. – P. 243-246.
3. Ioannis S.Minas, Gayle M. Crisosto, Deirdre Holcroft, Miltiadis Vasilakakis, Carlos
H.Crisosto. Postharvest handling of plums (Prunus salicina Lindl.) at 10°C to save energy
and preserve fruit quality using an innovative application system of 1-MCP. // Postharvest
Biology and Technology, 76, 2013. – P.1-9.
4. Kamil Sacilik, Ahmet Konuralp Elicin, Guran Unal. Drying kinetics of Üryani plum in a
convective hot-air dryer. //  Journal of Food Engineering, 76 (3), 2006. – P. 362-368.
5. Shlegun T.V., Brega V.D. Kinetics of heating and selection of temperature regimes of two-
stage drying plums / / New in processing technology of fruit and grapes, 1988. –P.25-36.
6. Lupasco A., G.= Dikusar Nastasia O. and others. On the application of non-traditional
methods of drying stone fruits. / / Proceedings of the IX ISPC. - Donetsk, 2002.- т.2.-
P.143-146.
7. Marisa Di Matteo,  Luciano Cinquanta, Giovanni Galiero,  Silvestro Crescitelli. A
mathematical model of mass transfer in spherical geometry: plum (Prunus
domestica) drying. // Journal of Food Engineering, 58 (2), 2003. – P.183-192.

Last Name
First Name
University / Firm
Department
Research branch
Position/Job title
Academic grade
Country
City
Address
Contact phone
E-mail