Modelling the Performance of Single-Photon Counting Kinetic Inductance Detectors

Using conventional superconductor theory we discuss and validate a model that describes the energy-resolving performance of an aluminium LEKID to single-photon absorption events. While aluminium is not the optimum material for single-photon counting applications, this material is well understood and is used to understand the underlying device physics of these detectors. We also discuss data analysis techniques used to extract single-photon detections from noisy data.