Characterization of a Wide-Band Single-Photon Detector Based on Transition-Edge Sensor

A superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) as a microcalorimeter detects incoming photons by measuring heat converted from photon energy. With high resolving power and low noise levels, a TES is sensitive to single photons and able to count photons within a wide spectral band from X-ray to near-...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jingkai Xia, Shuo Zhang, Bingjun Wu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-06-01
Series:Photonics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6732/12/6/609
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) as a microcalorimeter detects incoming photons by measuring heat converted from photon energy. With high resolving power and low noise levels, a TES is sensitive to single photons and able to count photons within a wide spectral band from X-ray to near-infrared. We have developed a TES detector aiming at soft X-ray spectroscopy applications. In this work, the performance of this detector is characterized. It is shown that the energy resolution of this detector is about 1.8 eV for 1.5 keV photons. The good resolution is also kept in visible range, enabling photon-number resolving for 405 nm photons.
ISSN:2304-6732