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Telescope detectors
Sensors that measure one photon by the heat it leaves behind.
The record behind telescope detectors
The SPT-3G focal plane, 16,000 detectors · arXivSuperconductors in telescope detectors
At millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths the useful detector is a thermometer: absorb the photon, measure the temperature rise. A superconductor sitting on its transition is the most sensitive thermometer available, because its resistance changes steeply there for a very small change in temperature. That is a transition-edge sensor. A kinetic-inductance detector does the same job by watching a resonator shift in frequency instead, which has the practical advantage that thousands of them can share one readout line by each being given a different frequency.
What is stopping telescope detectors
Focal planes are limited by how many channels can be read out of a cold stage, not by how sensitive one pixel is. Every wire into a cryostat carries heat in, so the multiplexing factor is the figure of merit, and improving it is a materials and readout problem rather than a detector problem.
What a better material would change for telescope detectors
The sensor is not the constraint. What would change the next generation of focal planes is a material that lets more detectors share one readout line. Every wire into the cold stage carries heat in, so the multiplexing factor is what sets how many pixels a telescope can afford to cool.
Conductors used in telescope detectors
Near telescope detectors, in compute and sensing
SuperMatics is a platform infrastructure company for superconducting devices: software that finds the material and the process, lab work that makes and measures it, and pilot manufacturing with industrial partners.If you are working on something in this field and a material is what stands in the way, tell us about it.