Position Dependent Spatial And Spectral Resolution Measurement Of Distributed Readout Superconducting Imaging Detectors

We present direct measurements of spatial and spectral resolution of cryogenic distributed readout imaging detectors (DROIDs). The spatial and spectral resolutions have been experimentally determined by scanning a 10 mu m spot of monochromatic visible light across the detector. The influences of the photon energy, bias voltage, and absorber length and width on the spatial and spectral resolutions have been examined. The confinement of quasiparticles in the readout sensors (superconducting tunnel junctions) as well as the detector's signal amplitude can be optimized by tuning the bias voltage, thereby improving both the spatial and spectral resolutions. Changing the length of the absorber affects the spatial and spectral resolutions in opposite manner, making it an important parameter to optimize the DROID for the application at hand. The results have been used to test expressions for photon energy, position, and spatial and spectral resolutions which have been derived by using an existing one-dimensional model. The model is found to accurately describe the experimental data, but some limitations have been identified. In particular, the model's assumption that the two sensors have identical response characteristics and noise, the approximation of the detailed quasiparticle dynamics in the sensors by border conditions, and the use of a one-dimensional diffusion process is not always adequate. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.