Breakthrough: Scientists Develop Highest-Resolution Single-Photon Superconducting Camera with 400,000 Pixels

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a superconducting camera with 400,000 pixels, 400 times more than any previous device of its kind. The camera uses ultrathin electrical wires cooled to near absolute zero, where current moves with no resistance until a photon strikes a wire, disrupting the superconductivity and creating an electrical signal. By combining signals from multiple pixels onto a few readout wires, the researchers overcame the challenge of connecting each pixel to its own wire. This breakthrough could open up new applications in science, such as imaging faint galaxies or planets, measuring light in quantum computers, and biomedical studies using near-infrared light to examine human tissue.