Impact of Skipper-CCD technology on Quantum Microscopy

AGUSTINA G. MAGNONI; MURIEL BONETTO; JUAN ESTRADA; STEVE HOLLAND; MIGUEL A. LAROTONDA; DARÍO RODRIGUES

Workshop; Virtual Bristol Quantum Information Technologies Workshop 2021; 2021

The field of Quantum Microscopy (QM) promises highly efficient imaging for low absorption samples and microscopy at the single photon level. The recently developed Skipper-CCD detector technology is able to measure the charge in each pixel, repeatedly, in a non-destructive way. As a result, the readout noise can be reduced as much as desired. It allows the precise counting of the number of electrons in each pixel ranging from empty pixel to more than 1900 electrons. In addition, they account for very high quantum efficiency (above 90% in the visible range), extremely low dark current (less than 1 electron per pixel per day), and high resolution (pixel size of 15 microns by 15 microns). The use of Skipper-CCD detectors opens the possibilities for multiple applications within this field. In particular, they are expected to provide comparable resolution and Noise Reduction Factor (NRF) to state-of-the-art setups for QM, with a dramatically/drastically reduced photon count per pixel. The same advantage can be expressed as an order of magnitude increase in resolution for the same number of photons per pixel. This presents a valuable impact of QM applications in biology and chemistry, when avoiding damage of the sample is required. We present here the status and plans for the implementation of a Skipper-CCD in this field.