Analytical and numerical treatment of percolation noise in transition edge sensors

摘要

Transition edge sensors (TESs) are thin films biased inside the superconducting-to-normal phase transition, making them extremely sensitive to even minute changes in temperature. TESs are often employed as thermometers in photon counting microcalorimeters or high sensitivity low noise bolometers. Various experimenters report an unidentified noise source intrinsic to the devices [1][2][3]. We investigate percolation noise from modelling the TES as a random resistor-superconductor network as a candidate theory. We show and discuss the results obtained by treating percolation networks with semianalytical methods (each individual network is solved analytically but the model predictions depend on the statistical properties of a large number of random networks). We conclude by discussing the level of agreement with the available experimental data and avenues for further development of the model.