Superconducting detector

A sensor that detects radiation, particles, or other signals through changes in a superconducting material’s electrical or thermal properties. Its low operating temperatures can enable exceptionally sensitive measurements.

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Transition-edge sensor: A superconducting microcalorimeter operated at the sharp boundary between its superconducting and normal states. Its steep resistance change turns tiny absorbed-energy changes into a large electrical signal.
Photon counting: The detection and enumeration of individual photons rather than measurement of only average light intensity. Nanowire and transition-edge devices can register individual photons with high sensitivity.
Superconductivity: A state of matter with zero direct-current electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic fields below a critical temperature. It supplies the material behavior that superconducting detectors exploit.
Semiconductor detector: A sensor that converts radiation into electrical signals through charge carriers in a semiconductor. It provides an alternative readout mechanism that often operates without millikelvin cooling.
Kinetic inductance detector: A superconducting resonator that detects energy when broken Cooper pairs alter its kinetic inductance. It converts absorbed radiation into a shift in resonant frequency or quality factor.
Cosmic microwave background: Relic thermal radiation from the early universe, now observed mainly at microwave wavelengths. Arrays of superconducting bolometers map its faint temperature and polarization variations.
Cooper pair: A weakly bound pair of electrons that carries supercurrent in conventional superconductors. Radiation can break Cooper pairs, changing the detector’s electrical response.
Photomultiplier tube: A vacuum tube that amplifies photoelectrons to detect very weak light. It is a traditional photon detector, unlike superconducting devices that require cryogenic cooling.
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detector: A narrow superconducting wire that registers a photon when a local region becomes resistive. It is a prominent fast, efficient detector for individual optical and near-infrared photons.
Neutrino detection: The observation of neutrinos through rare interactions with matter or other detectable effects. Cryogenic superconducting sensors can measure the tiny energy deposits from neutrino interactions.