A transition edge sensor or TES is a type of bolometric detector consisting of a superconducting material, such as aluminum or titanium, held on its superconducting transition. When biased on the superconducting transition, the device has a finite electrical resistance that is less than the resistance in the fully non-superconducting state. Energy coupled to the detector increases the temperature of the superconducting material, pushing it further into the non-superconducting state and thereby increasing its electrical resistance. This increase in resistance can be used to detect very small changes in temperature, and hence in energy. TES arrays are becoming increasingly common in physics and astronomy experiments such as ACT, EBEX, SPT, SCUBA-2, and Spider.
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