1.

INTRODUCTION AND
ABSTRACT 1

2. PHOTORESISTOR
DISCOVERY AND 2-3
MECHANISM
3. PRINCIPLE & THEORY
3-4

4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF
5-7
COMPONENTS
5. APPLICATIONS
7-8

6. PROCEDURE
8-9

7. OBSERVATIONS
9-11

8. RESULT & CONCLUSIONS

12

INDEX
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LIGHT DEPENDENT RESISTANCE Project Report Physics

INTRODUCTION

In the society, sometimes street lights glow in day time due to any reason. In mines

area people face many difficulties due to absence of light in the nights. In frontier and

hilly areas, people face many problems due to damaged street lights.

For solve above these problems, we create a device in which the lights glow in night

and in day time, they off automatically and don't glow. Due to use of it, we can solve

above problems and can also save electricity and men's power.

Abstract : To study the variations, in current flowing in a circuit containing a LDR,

because of a variation:-

In the power of the incandescent lamp, used to ‘illuminate’ the LDR. (Keeping all

the lamps at a fixed distance).

APPARATUS:

Light Dependent Resistor(LDR),Connecting Wires, Source of different power

rating(bulbs), Bulb Holder , Metre scale, Multi Meter Battery.

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Photo resistor discovery

Photo resistors, or light dependent resistors have been in use for very many years.
Photo resistors have been seen in early forms since the nineteenth century when
photoconductivity in selenium was discovered by Smith in 1873. Since then many
variants of photoconductive devices have been made.

Much useful work was conducted by T. W. Case in 1920 when he published a paper
entitled "Thalofide Cell - a new photo-electric cell".

Other substances including PbS, PbSe and PbTe were studied in the 1930s and
1940s, and then in 1952, Rollin and Simmons developed their photoconductors
using silicon and germanium.

Photoresistor mechanism

A photoresistor or photocell is a component that uses a photoconductor between two

contacts. When this is exposed to light a change in resistance is noted.
Photoconductivity - the mechanism behind the photoresistor - results from the
generation of mobile carriers when photons are absorbed by the semiconductor
material used for the photoconductor. While the different types of material used for
light dependent resistors are semiconductors, when used as a photo-resistor, they are
used only as a resistive element and there are no PN junctions. Accordingly the
device is purely passive.

There are two types of photoconductor and hence photoresistor:

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 Intrinsic photoresistor:   This type of photoresistor uses a photoconductive

material that involves excitation of charge carriers from the valence bands to
the conduction band.

 Extrinsic photoresistor:   This type of photoresistor uses a photoconductive

material that involves excitation of charge carriers between an impurity and the
valence band or conduction band. It requires shallow impurity dopants that are
not ionised in the presence of light.

 Extrinisc photoresistors or photocells are generally designed for long

wavelength radiation - often infra-red, but to avoid thermal generation they
need to be operated at low temperatures.

PRINCIPLE

This project is based on Light Dependent Resistance (L.D.R.). Light Dependent

Resistance [LDR] is a resistance, in which opposing power of current depends on the
presence of quantity of light present, i.e. the resistance of LDR increases or
decreases, according to quantity of light which falls on it.
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If LDR places in darkness, the resistance of LDR increases and when light falls on it,
the resistance of LDR decreases and act as a conductor. Any LDR in the presence of
light and darkness changes its resistance is depends on the different types of LDR.

ADVANTAGES

 Collection of parts of the circuit are easily available.

 Accuracy of this circuit is more than accuracy of other circuits.
 By using laser, it can be used for security purposes.
 It can be used to stop the wastage of electricity.
 The cost of circuit is low.
 This circuit saves the men's power.

USES

 It can be used in street lights.

 It can be used in mines areas.
 It can be used in hilly areas.
 By using laser, it can be used for safety purposes.
 It can be used in frontier areas.
 It can be used in houses.
 It can be used in jail lights.
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BRIEF DISCRIPTION OF COM PONENTS

1. TRANSISTOR:-When a thin slice of p-type is sandwiched between two blocks of
n-type, then n-p-n transistor is formed. It consists of emitter, base, and collector. In
the project, common emitter n-p-n transistor ( BC-147 & SL-100) is used.

2. DIODE:- When a p-type and n-type semiconductors are joined a diode is formed.

It conducts when forward biased and does not conduct when reverse biased. In the
project, IN-4007diode is used.

3. RELAY:- It helps to contact and discontact. In the project, we use relay of 6

ohms.

4. CARBON RESISTOR:- A carbon resistor has generally four rings or bands

A,B,C and D of different colours corresponding to the value of resistance. In project,
we use carbon resistance of 220 kilo-ohms, 1.5 kilo-ohms and 820 ohms.

5. LDR:- LDR means light dependent resistance which is used to complete the

circuit.

6. TRANSFORMER:- Transformer is used to convert low alternating voltage to

high alternating voltage by decreasing the current and vice-versa. We use a
transformer of 6-0-6V for the circuit.

7. CAPACITOR:- Capacitor is used to block DC. In the circuit, we use the capacitor

of 220mfd and 1000mfd.

8.BULB:- An electric bulb is connected to the circuit when LDR comes in the
darkness.
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9.PHOTORESISTOR-A photoresistor (or light-dependentresistor, LDR,
or photocell) is a light-controlled variable resistor. The resistance of a photoresistor
decreases with increasing incident light intensity; in other words, it
exhibits photoconductivity. A photoresistor can be applied in light-sensitive detector
circuits, and light- and dark-activated switching circuits.

A photoresistor is made of a high resistance semiconductor. In the dark, a

photoresistor can have a resistance as high as several megohms (MΩ), while in the
light, a photoresistor can have a resistance as Photoresistor
low as a few hundred ohms. If incident light on
a photoresistor exceeds a
certain frequency, photons absorbed by the
semiconductor give bound electrons enough
energy to jump into the conduction band. The
resulting free electrons (and their hole partners)
conduct electricity, thereby lowering resistance.
The resistance range and sensitivity of a
photoresistor can substantially differ among
dissimilar devices. Moreover, unique
photoresistors may react substantially differently to photons within certain
wavelength bands.

A photoelectric device can be either intrinsic or extrinsic. An intrinsic semiconductor

has its own charge carriers and is not an efficient semiconductor, for example,
silicon. In intrinsic devices the only available electrons are in the valence band, and
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hence the photon must have enough energy to excite the electron across the
entire band gap. Extrinsic devices have impurities, also called dopants, added whose
ground state energy is closer to the conduction band; since the electrons do not have
as far to jump, lower energy photons (that is, longer wavelengths and lower
frequencies) are sufficient to trigger the device. If a sample of silicon has some of its
atoms replaced by phosphorus atoms (impurities), there will be extra electrons
available for conduction. This is an example of an extrinsic semiconductor.

Applications

The internal components of a photoelectric control for a typical American streetlight.

The photoresistor is facing rightwards, and controls whether current flows through
the heater which opens the main power contacts. At night, the heater cools, closing
the power contacts, energizing the street light.

Photoresistors come in many types. Inexpensive cadmium sulphide cells can be found

in many consumer items such as camera light meters, clock radios, alarm devices (as
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the detector for a light beam), nightlights, outdoor clocks, solar street lamps and solar
road studs, etc.

Photoresistors can be placed in streetlights to control when the light is on. Ambient
light falling on the photoresistor causes the streetlight to turn off. Thus energy is
saved by ensuring the light is only on during hours of darkness.

They are also used in some dynamic compressors together with a

small incandescent or neon lamp, or light-emitting diode to control gain reduction. A
common usage of this application can be found in many guitar amplifiers that
incorporate an onboard tremolo effect, as the oscillating light patterns control the
level of signal running through the amp circuit.

The use of CdS and CdSe[3] photoresistors is severely restricted in Europe due to

the RoHS ban on cadmium.

Lead sulphide (PbS) and indium antimonide (InSb) LDRs (light-dependent resistors)

are used for the mid-infrared spectral region. Ge:Cu photoconductors are among the
best far-infrared detectors available, and are used for infrared astronomy and infrared
spectroscopy.

PROCEDURE

1. Choose a specific position for the source and mount it using a holder, make sure it
is stable.
2. Select the bulb with the lowest power rating and connect it to the holder as shown
in the figure.
3. Connect the LDR, battery (6V) and the multimeter in series.
4. Set the multimeter to ohm section and select suitable range and measure the
resistance with a bulb on.
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5. Similarly switch to current section and move to micro ampere in the multimeter.
This gives the value of the current.
6. Repeat these steps with different power sources at different distances and note
down observations.

OBSERVATIONS :-
The experiment has been conducted by using various sources with different power
ratings. Voltage of the battery = 6 V.

OBSERVATIONS TABLE :-

Variation in current of LDR with lamps of different power, keeping distance fixed.

Distance
Source(Bulb)
between LDR
S.No. Of power Resistance(Ω ) Current(mA)
and the source
imputs(W)
d(cm)
1. 10 15 1310 4.58

2. 10 30 770 7.00

3. 10 60 285 21.00

4. 10 100 195 30.00

1. 20 15 2800 2.14

2. 20 60 650 9.00

3. 20 100 435 13.79

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1. 30 15 4300 1.4

2. 30 60 1000 6.00

3. 30 100 660 9.00

FOR 60 W POWER SOURCE

Distance between
S.No. LDR and the source Resistance(Ω ) Current(mA)
d(cm)

1. 4 105 57

2. 6 180 33

3. 8 230 26

4. 10 280 21

5. 12 360 16

6. 14 440 13
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7. 16 500 12

8. 18 575 10

9. 20 675 8.8

10. 22 740 8.1

11. 24 820 7.3

FOR 100 W POWER SOURCE

Distance between
S.No. LDR and the source Resistance(Ω ) Current(mA)
d(cm)

1. 4 80 75

2. 6 130 46

3. 8 170 35

4. 10 205 29
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5. 12 270 22

6. 14 300 20

7. 16 360 16

8. 18 410 14

9. 20 460 13

10. 22 525 11

11. 24 585 10

CONCLUSION & RESULT

1. The LDR resistance decreases with increase in intensity of light and hence
there is an increase in the flow of current.
2. There is an increase in the current as the distance from the source decreases.

SOURCES OF ERROR

1. The LDR may not be perpendicular to the source.

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2. Connections may be faulty.

3. The experiment should be conducted in a dark room.
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