Superconducting camera

The Superconducting camera ( SCAM ) is a camera for the detection of single photons, developed by ESA. It is composed of Josephson junctions, which are operated at a temperature of 0.3 Kelvin.

It can, in contrast to charge-coupled devices to detect the wavelength of the incident photons.

The number of the released electron by an incident photon is proportional to its energy. Per electron volts this is about 18,000 electrons, making a determination of the wavelength of the registered photon is possible. For comparison, a CCD photon per detektiertem only one electron is released.