Development of wide-band, time and energy resolving, optical photon detectors with application to imaging astronomy

Superconducting transition edge sensors (TESs) are showing promise for the wide-band spectroscopy of individual photons from the mid-infrared (IR), through the optical, and into the near ultraviolet (UV). Our TES sensors are similar to 20 mu m square, 40 nm thick tungsten (W) films with a transition temperature of about 80 mK. We typically attain an energy resolution of 0.15 eV FWHM over the optical range with relative timing resolution of 100 ns. Single photon events with sub-microsecond risetimes and few microsecond falltimes have been achieved allowing count rates in excess of 30 kHz per pixel. Additionally, tungsten is approximately 50% absorptive in the optical (dropping to 10% in the IR) giving these devices an intrinsically high quantum efficiency. These combined traits make our detectors attractive for fast spectrophotometers and photon-starved applications such as wide-band, time and energy resolved astronomical observations. We present recent results from our work toward the fabrication and testing of the first TES optical photon imaging arrays. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.