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They have found application from measuring astronomical spectra through to determining the quantum property of photon-number, <mml:math xmlns:mml=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\"><mml:mrow class=\"MJX-TeXAtom-ORD\"><mml:mover><mml:mi>n<\/mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy=\"false\">&amp;#x005E;<\/mml:mo><\/mml:mover><\/mml:mrow><mml:mrow class=\"MJX-TeXAtom-ORD\"><mml:mo>=<\/mml:mo><\/mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow class=\"MJX-TeXAtom-ORD\"><mml:mover><mml:mi>a<\/mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy=\"false\">&amp;#x005E;<\/mml:mo><\/mml:mover><\/mml:mrow><mml:mo>&amp;#x2020;<\/mml:mo><\/mml:msup><mml:mrow class=\"MJX-TeXAtom-ORD\"><mml:mover><mml:mi>a<\/mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy=\"false\">&amp;#x005E;<\/mml:mo><\/mml:mover><\/mml:mrow><\/mml:math>, for energies from 0.6-2.33eV. However, achieving optimal energy resolution requires considerable data acquisition \u2013 on the order of 1GB\/min \u2013 followed by post-processing, which does not allow access to energy information in real time. Here we use a custom hardware processor to process TES pulses while new detections are still being registered, allowing photon-number to be measured in real time as well as reducing data requirements by orders-of-magnitude. We resolve photon number up to <mml:math xmlns:mml=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\"><mml:mi>n<\/mml:mi><mml:mo>=<\/mml:mo><mml:mn>16<\/mml:mn><\/mml:math> \u2013 achieving up to parts-per-billion discrimination for low photon numbers on the fly \u2013 providing transformational capacity for applications of TES detectors from astronomy through to quantum technology.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.22331\/q-2024-05-23-1355","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,23]],"date-time":"2024-05-23T10:13:16Z","timestamp":1716459196000},"page":"1355","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.22331\/q-crossmark-policy-page","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Precisely determining photon-number in real time"],"prefix":"10.22331","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1617-979X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Leonardo Assis","family":"Morais","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"},{"name":"School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"}]},{"given":"Till","family":"Weinhold","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"},{"name":"School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"}]},{"given":"Marcelo Pereira de","family":"Almeida","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"},{"name":"School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"}]},{"given":"Joshua","family":"Combes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4659-3804","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Markus","family":"Rambach","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"},{"name":"School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"}]},{"given":"Adriana","family":"Lita","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Gerrits","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA"}]},{"given":"Sae Woo","family":"Nam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA"}]},{"given":"Andrew G.","family":"White","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"},{"name":"School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"}]},{"given":"Geoff","family":"Gillett","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"},{"name":"School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia"},{"name":"Quantum Valley Ideas Lab, Waterloo, ON N2L 6R2, Canada"}]}],"member":"9598","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"0","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"R. 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