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==History==
The first demonstrations of the superconducting transition's measurement potential appeared in the 1940s, 30 years after [[Heike Kamerlingh Onnes|Onnes]]'s discovery of [[superconductivity]]. D. H. Andrews demonstrated the first transition-edge [[bolometer]], a current-biased [[tantalum]] wire which he used to measure an infrared signal. Subsequently he demonstrated a transition-edge [[Calorimeter (particle physics)|calorimeter]] made of [[niobium nitride]] which was used to measure [[alpha particles]].<ref>D. H. Andrews ''et al.'', "Attenuated superconductors I. For measuring infra-red radiation". ''Rev. Sci. Instrum.'', '''13''', 281 (1942), {{doi|10.1063/1.1770037}}.</ref> However, the TES detector did not gain popularity for about 50 years, due primarily to the difficulty in stabilizing the temperature within the narrow superconducting transition region, especially when more than one pixel was operated at the same time, and also due to the difficulty of signal readout from such a low-[[Electrical impedance|impedance]] system. [[Joule heating]] in a current-biased TES can lead to [[thermal runaway]] that drives the detector into the normal (non-superconducting) state, a phenomenon known as positive [[electrothermal feedback]]. The thermal runaway problem was solved in 1995 by K. D. Irwin by voltage-biasing the TES, establishing stable negative [[electrothermal feedback]], and coupling them to superconducting quantum interference devices ([[SQUID]]) current amplifiers.<ref>K. D. Irwin, "An application of electrothermal feedback for high resolution cryogenic particle detection". ''Appl. Phys. Lett.'', '''66''', 1998 (1995), {{doi|10.1063/1.113674}}.</ref> This breakthrough has led to widespread adoption of TES detectors.<ref name="IrwinHilton">K. D. Irwin and G. C. Hilton, "Transition-edge sensors", ''Cryogenic Particle Detection'', ed. C. Enss, Springer (2005), {{doi|10.1007/10933596_3}}.</ref>
==Setup, operation, and readout==
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TES detectors are attractive to the scientific community for a variety of reasons. Among their most striking attributes are an unprecedented high detection efficiency customizable to wavelengths from the millimeter regime to gamma rays<ref name=IrwinHilton /><ref name=NIST /> and a theoretical negligible background dark count level (less than 1 event in 1000 s from intrinsic [[Phonon noise|thermal fluctuations]] of the device<ref name=NIST2 />). (In practice, although only a real energy signal will create a current pulse, a nonzero background level may be registered by the counting algorithm or the presence of background light in the experimental setup. Even thermal [[blackbody radiation]] may be seen by a TES optimized for use in the visible regime.)
TES single-photon detectors suffer nonetheless from a few disadvantages as compared to their [[Single-photon avalanche diode|avalanche photodiode]] (APD) counterparts. APDs are manufactured in small modules, which count photons out-of-the-box with a [[dead time]] of a few nanoseconds and output a pulse corresponding to each photon with a [[jitter]] of tens of picoseconds. In contrast, TES detectors must be operated in a cryogenic environment, output a signal that must be further analyzed to identify photons, and have a jitter of approximately 100 ns.<ref name=NIST /> Furthermore, a single-photon spike on a TES detector lasts on the order of microseconds.
==Applications==
TES arrays are becoming increasingly common in physics and astronomy experiments such as [[James Clerk Maxwell Telescope#SCUBA-2|SCUBA-2]], the HAWC+ instrument on the [[Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy]], the [[Atacama Cosmology Telescope]], the [[Cryogenic Dark Matter Search]], the [[Cryogenic Observatory for Signatures Seen in Next-Generation Underground Searches]], the [[Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers]], [[the E and B Experiment]], the [[South Pole Telescope]], the [[Spider (polarimeter)|Spider polarimeter]], the X-IFU instrument of the [[Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics]] satellite, the future [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10909-019-02329-w LiteBIRD] [[Cosmic microwave background|Cosmic Microwave Background]] polarization experiment, the [[Simons Observatory]], and the CMB Stage-IV Experiment.
==See also==
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