[EDP1] SQUID, Detector, Metrology, Novel Device

[EDP1-07] Development of TES Calibration System for Bioimaging Applications in Visible to Near-Infrared Wavelengths

*Tetsuya Tsuruta¹, Koki Shirota¹, Takeshi Jodoi¹, Daiji Fukuda¹ (1. AIST (Japan))

Keywords:

Transition-Edge Sensor,Calibration of detection efficiency

Recent advances in quantum technologies have driven innovations across a wide range of fields. In particular, the rapid development of quantum computing and quantum sensing has underscored the growing importance of high-precision measurement techniques at the single-photon level. Against this background, superconducting transition-edge sensors (TES), which enable precise energy measurements of individual photons, have attracted considerable attention as next-generation photodetectors. Unlike conventional semiconductor detectors, TESs detect the energy of incident photons as heat, allowing them to achieve high sensitivity over a broad spectral range from visible to infrared wavelengths. The photon-resolving capability offers a powerful approach for bioimaging applications, where the acquired spectral data can lead to various biological discoveries and insights. Moreover, their high detection efficiency and low dark count rate enable a reduction in excitation light power by more than five orders of magnitude compared to conventional techniques, thereby minimizing photodamage to biological samples and opening the way to minimally invasive bioimaging. However, realizing a broadband TES-based imaging system requires precise calibration of the wavelength-dependent detection efficiency from the visible to the near-infrared region. Conventional calibration methods face challenges: they either require separate monochromatic pulsed lasers for each wavelength or rely on tunable sources with limited spectral coverage, resulting in significant time and efforts and a lack of continuity across wavelengths^1)2). In this study, we developed a calibration system based on a supercontinuum light source, which enables continuous and accurate measurement of detection efficiency across a wide spectral range from 400 nm to 1300 nm within a single setup. This approach makes it possible to obtain the detection efficiency over the entire visible-to-near-infrared region in one measurement and to calibrate the TES response to incident photons.