Photo-electric smoke detectors incorporate a pulsing LED located in a chamber within the housing of the detector. The chamber is designed to exclude light from any external source. At an angle to the LED is a photo-diode which normally does not register the column of light emitted by the LED.
In the event of smoke from a fire entering the chamber, the light pulse from the LED will be scattered and hence registered by the photo-diode. If the photo-diode “sees” smoke on the two following pulses, the detector changes into the alarm state and the indicator LED lights up. IP rating = IP23D