Press Release
☷NIST Team Develops Highest Resolution Single Photon Superconducting Camera
National Institute of Standards and Technology ( By Press Release office)
Oct 27,2023
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NIST and its partners have built a super fancy camera with 400 , 000 pixels , which is a lot more than any other camera of its kind . This camera can capture really faint light signals , like from far - away space stuff or parts of the brain . Having more pixels means it can be used for all kinds of cool scientific and medical research . The camera is made up of really thin wires that are super cold , and when a photon hits one of the wires , it stops the current from flowing and makes a picture . Superconducting cameras that can detect single photons have been around for a while , but they only had a few thousand pixels . With this new camera , scientists can do things like take pictures of really dim galaxies or planets outside our solar system , measure light in quantum computers , and study human tissue using special light . The challenge with making a camera with so many pixels was how to connect all of them to the cooling system , but the researchers figured out a way to combine the signals from lots of pixels onto just a few wires at room temperature . To make the most of that behavior , the researchers used a current just below the maximum on the sensors . In this situation , if even one photon hits a pixel , it disrupts the superconductivity . Instead , the current is directed to a small heating element attached to each pixel . This redirected current creates an electrical signal that can be quickly detected . Once the team implemented the new readout design , Oripov quickly increased the number of pixels from 20 , 000 to 400 , 000 in a matter of weeks . McCaughan stated that the readout technology can easily be scaled up for even larger cameras . It may soon be possible to have a superconducting single - photon camera with tens or hundreds of millions of pixels . The detectors are capable of detecting differences in arrival time as short as 50 trillionths of a second . They can also count up to 100 , 000 photons per second hitting the grid . This setup allowed the team to measure the signals from an entire row or column of pixels at once , rather than collecting data from each individual pixel . This significantly reduced the number of readout wires needed . To achieve this , the researchers placed a superconducting readout wire parallel to the rows , but not touching them , and another wire parallel to the columns , also not touching them . Drawing inspiration from existing technology , the NIST team built the camera with intersecting arrays of superconducting nanowires , forming rows and columns like a tic - tac - toe grid . Each pixel , a small area where vertical and horizontal nanowires intersect , is uniquely identified by its row and column . Let ' s focus on the superconducting readout wire parallel to the rows . When a photon hits a pixel , the current redirected to the heating element warms a small section of the readout wire , creating a tiny hotspot . This hotspot generates two voltage pulses that travel in opposite directions along the readout wire . Detectors at each end record the arrival time of these pulses . The difference in arrival time indicates the column where the pixel is located . A second superconducting readout wire parallel to the columns serves a similar purpose . The researchers published their findings in the October 26 issue of Nature . In the coming year , the team aims to enhance the sensitivity of the prototype camera so that it can capture nearly every incoming photon . This would enable the camera to tackle low - light tasks such as imaging faint galaxies or planets outside our solar system , measuring light in photon - based quantum computers , and contributing to biomedical studies that use near - infrared light to examine human tissue . Paper: A new camera with superconducting - nanowire technology has been developed , boasting 400 , 000 pixels . It was published in Nature on October 26 , 2023 . The camera has applications in various fields such as electronics , optoelectronics , sensors , and medical imaging . For media inquiries , contact 301 - 975 - 2762 , and for technical inquiries , reach out to Adam McCaughan at adam . mccaughan@nist . gov or Bakhrom Oripov at bakhrom . oripov@nist . gov . The research was conducted by the Faint Photonics Group in NIST ' s Applied Physics Division , and it has garnered attention for its potential in detecting extraterrestrial life and dark matter . Stay updated with NIST ' s latest developments by signing up with your email address . The paper was released on October 25 , 2023 , and was last updated on November 30 , 2023 .
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