LDR It stands for Light Dependent Resistor or Photoresistor, which is a passive electronic component, basically a resistor which has a resistance that varies depending of the light intensity. A photoresistor is made of a high resistance semiconductor that absorbs photons and based on the quantity and frequency of the absorbed photons the semiconductor material give bound electrons enough energy to jump into the conduction band. The resulting free electrons conduct electricity resulting in lowering resistance of the photoresistor. The number of electrons is dependent of the photons frequency.
How does the LDR (photoresistor) works The resistance is very high in darkness, almost high as 1MΩ but when there is light that falls on the LDR, the resistance is falling down to a few KΩ (10-20kΩ @ 10 lux, 2-4kOmega; @ 100 lux) depending on the model.

Light dependent resistors come in different shapes and colors. LDRs are very useful in many electronic circuits, especially in alarms, switching devices, clocks, street lights and more. There are some audio application uses such as audio limiters or compressors. It is used to turn ON or OFF a device according to the ambient light.

Today i will show you a very simple circuit using LDR. This circuit will be detect DARK.