Transition edge sensors with low timing jitter at 1550 nm

Transition edge sensors have demonstrated near unity detection efficiency of single photons and photon number resolving ability over a wide wavelength range (≈ 700-1600 nm). They are also known to be slow, with timing jitter values in the ≈ 100 ns range, and the best current values in the ≈ 20ns range. We report measured jitter times below 5ns for a tungsten TES. This is particularly relevant for experiments clocked from an 80MHz Ti:Sa laser.