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Single-electron and single-photon sensitivity with a silicon Skipper CCD

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arxiv 1706.00028 v1 pith:32YJRJMH submitted 2017-05-31 physics.ins-det astro-ph.COastro-ph.EPastro-ph.IMhep-ex

Single-electron and single-photon sensitivity with a silicon Skipper CCD

classification physics.ins-det astro-ph.COastro-ph.EPastro-ph.IMhep-ex
keywords readoutdetectorelectronsapplicationscountingnoisenon-destructivepixels
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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We have developed a non-destructive readout system that uses a floating-gate amplifier on a thick, fully depleted charge coupled device (CCD) to achieve ultra-low readout noise of 0.068 e- rms/pix. This is the first time that discrete sub-electron readout noise has been achieved reproducibly over millions of pixels on a stable, large-area detector. This allows the precise counting of the number of electrons in each pixel, ranging from pixels with 0 electrons to more than 1500 electrons. The resulting CCD detector is thus an ultra-sensitive calorimeter. It is also capable of counting single photons in the optical and near-infrared regime. Implementing this innovative non-destructive readout system has a negligible impact on CCD design and fabrication, and there are nearly immediate scientific applications. As a particle detector, this CCD will have unprecedented sensitivity to low-mass dark matter particles and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering, while astronomical applications include future direct imaging and spectroscopy of exoplanets.

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Cited by 7 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Searches for CE{\nu}NS and Physics beyond the Standard Model using Skipper-CCDs at CONNIE

    hep-ex 2024-03 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    CONNIE's first Skipper-CCD run at Angra-2 yields no CEνNS excess, comparable prior limits on neutrino rates, improved bounds on light vector mediators, and record surface DM-electron limits via diurnal modulation.

  2. Thermal Emission of Dark Photons from Earth's Core

    hep-ph 2026-06 conditional novelty 6.0

    Thermal dark-photon emission from Earth's core, recast onto SENSEI/DAMIC-M bounds, already constrains new ε parameter space; Oscura could improve by 2–3 orders of magnitude near 10^{-4} eV.

  3. Constraints on Axion-Like Particles with the Silicon Detector at a Nuclear Reactor

    hep-ph 2026-01 conditional novelty 6.0

    New 90% C.L. limits on the ALP–photon coupling in the 0.1–100 keV range are derived from Connie and Atucha-II reactor data via plasmon excitation in silicon; a 30 kg·yr Oscura-style run could improve on NEON by about tenfold.

  4. First Production of Skipper-CCD Modules for the DAMIC-M Experiment

    physics.ins-det 2025-09 accept novelty 5.0

    DAMIC-M completed production of 28 skipper-CCD modules, selected from 188 tested CCDs, with measured performance and added radioactivity within the experiment's background budget.

  5. Thermal Emission of Dark Photons from Earth's Core

    hep-ph 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 4.0

    Estimates that Earth's core thermal emission of dark photons constrains new regions of the kinetic mixing parameter ε, with SENSEI/DAMIC-M already excluding some space and Oscura potentially improving by 2-3 orders of...

  6. The Habitable Worlds Observatory Technology Development Plan

    astro-ph.IM 2026-07 accept novelty 3.5

    HWO TMPO defines critical technology gaps, TRL assessments, prioritization matrices, and parallel development roadmaps across coronagraph, ultra-stable telescope, and UV/visible instrument tracks to reach TRL 5 before MCR.

  7. The Dark Photon

    hep-ph 2020-05 unverdicted novelty 2.0

    The paper surveys theoretical motivations, experimental searches, and bounds on the dark photon as a kinetically mixed gauge boson from a dark sector, covering both massive and massless cases along with related milli-...