A&A Supplement series, Vol. 123, June II 1997, 581-587
Received April 22; accepted September 27, 1996
T. Peacock, P. Verhoeve, N. Rando, M.A.C. Perryman, B.G. Taylor, - P. Jakobsen
Astrophysics Division, Space Science Department of ESA, ESTEC, Noordwijk 2200AG, The Netherlands
We discuss the capabilities of superconducting tunnel junctions as detectors
for ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared astronomy.
Such junctions have recently been shown to allow the detection of
individual optical and ultraviolet photons with an inherent spectral resolution
related to the critical temperature of the absorbing superconductor.
Limiting resolutions at 500 nm ranging from 5 - 40 nm (for materials with
critical temperatures between 0.1 to 10 K) should be
achievable. These detectors should have a high quantum efficiency (>50 per
cent) over a very broad wavelength range from the ultraviolet to the near
infrared (100 - 2000 nm). The overall efficiency is limited by reflection from
the superconducting film, and should be improved significantly by
appropriate anti-reflection coatings. The devices function at very high
incident photon rates--with count rates of order 10 kHz or higher being
feasible, and photon arrival time datation possible to microsec-level
accuracy. It is realistic in the future to envisage that these devices, of a
size typically 
, could be packaged into imaging arrays.
These key characteristics imply that many areas of
optical and ultraviolet astronomy could benefit significantly from
their further development.
keywords: instrumentation: detectors -- instrumentation: spectrographs -- ultraviolet: general