Astrophysics (Index)About

transition edge sensor

(TES)
(sensor using superconductivity's strong temperature sensitivity)

A transition edge sensor (TES) is a mechanism that detects temperature-changes using a superconductor's extreme temperature-sensitivity at the point within the temperature-scale where the superconductor resistance changes from zero to "normal". A TES bolometer (i.e., transition edge sensor bolometer) is a type of sensitive bolometer which senses incoming EMR using a TES to sense the temperature-change it induces. TESes have been made small for use in arrays for imaging, e.g., a quarter of a millimeter square. They are often used in conjunction with SQUIDs to sense the resistance and amplify the resulting signal. TES bolometers are of interest in astronomy for their high sensitivity. Telescopes/instruments using them include SOFIA, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), the South Pole Telescope (SPT), the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE), and SCUBA-2.


(instrument type)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_edge_sensor
http://web.mit.edu/figueroagroup/ucal/ucal_tes/
https://pole.uchicago.edu/public/detectors.html
https://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/C140914/talks/moixb3_talk.pdf
https://sites.astro.caltech.edu/~rogero/thesis/Ch3_TES_Bolometers.pdf

Referenced by pages:
Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT)
Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE)
Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS)
Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST)
EBEX
KID
LSPE-SWIPE
microcalorimeter
MUSTANG
SCUBA
SPIDER
SQUID

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