Ultra-high energy resolution microcalorimeter gamma-ray spectroscopy—with energy resolution 5 to 10 times better than observed in spectra obtained by commercial-off-the-shelf high purity germanium detectors—is an enabling technology for ultra-precise isotope identification and quantification. Microcalorimeter gamma spectroscopy complements measurements requiring high-accuracy mass spectrometry, a costly, destructive analysis technique, and may offer benefits over mass spectrometry in the future. Microcalorimeter detectors are fabricated from superconducting materials and operate at ultra-low temperatures (<0.1 K), properties which permit measurement of spectra with peak full width half maximum (FWHM) of less than 100 eV at 100 keV. The microcalorimeter collaboration between Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and University of Colorado, Boulder has deployed three microcalorimeter gamma-ray spectrometers to nuclear facilities and analytical laboratories so far. These are the Spectrometer Optimized for Facility Integrated Applications (SOFIA), a portable system that can be moved to any facility, and two instruments called the High Efficiency and Resolution Microcalorimeter Spectrometers (HERMES) intended for permanent installation at Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Each spectrometer was customized to satisfy requirements for their specific applications. This work describes samples examined by microcalorimeter gamma-ray spectrometers, including recently irradiated materials, nuclear material from various stages of the fuel cycle, and medical isotope products. It also highlights useful signatures from actinide and fission product gamma-rays that are otherwise infeasible to observe or use for analysis without costly chemical separations and mass spectrometric assay. Microcalorimeter technology provides additional spectral signatures to existing techniques to better constrain the origin and intended use of nuclear and radioactive materials.

Time Division multiplexing (TDM) using superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) is being developed to read out Transition-edge sensor arrays for the Athena X-ray integral field unit (X-IFU) and Cosmic Microwave Background Stage-4, which have baselined differential TDM architectures. We present the design of symmetric multiplexer circuit read out by a second stage SQUID series array amplifier (SSAA) that has differential input coils that reject the current response to common mode pickup. We present measurements showing that readout with differential input coils has lower EMI susceptibility than with single ended input coils. We also present increases in bandwidth and reductions in crosstalk enabled by related changes to the multiplexer circuit.

A highly charged muonic ion is a unique few-body atomic system where a negatively charged muon and a few electrons are simultaneously bound to a single nucleus. We report the first state-selective observation of highly charged muonic Ar (mu Ar) by electronic K x-ray spectroscopy using an array of transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters. The high-precision K x-ray spectra provide a clear signature of the presence of muonic atoms with one, two, and three electrons, i.e., H-like, He-like, and Li-like mu Ar. With the aid of theoretical calculations, we confirmed that the peak positions are consistent with the x-ray energies from highly charged Cl ions, and the intensities reflect deexcitation dynamics of highly charged mu Ar.

The X-ray spectroscopy of the muonic atom has attracted atomic, nuclear, and particle physicists since its discovery. The properties of a muonic atom, such as its binding energy or atomic radius, are different from an ordinary atom because of the difference in the mass between the muon and electron. Our collaboration has employed superconductor transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters for the x-ray spectroscopy of the muonic atom. Thanks to the recent detector development, the 44-keV lines from muonic Ar, which is important for the precision test of bound-state quantum electrodynamics, and the 76-keV lines from muonic Si, which is of interest from the viewpoint of the measurement of nuclear radii, have been reached by the dynamic range of the state-of-art TES microcalorimeters. An accelerator facility that can produce a high-intensity muon beam is necessary for such spectroscopic experiments. We performed a commissioning experiment of the hard x-ray and gamma-ray TES microcalorimeter at the J-PARC MLF MUSE muon beam line. The energy resolution, gain stability, and performance of timing selection of the pulses were evaluated in the environment of a large-scale accelerator facility.

A Super-Conducting ENergetic x-ray Telescope (ASCENT) is a concept for a future balloon-borne high-energy X-ray telescope in the energy range 60–85 keV to study gamma-ray emissions of 67.87 keV and 78.32 keV from the radioactive isotope 44Ti. For the focal plane instrumentation, ASCENT will use Mo-Cu/Mo-Au bilayer transition edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter gamma-ray detectors with tin (Sn) absorbers. ‘Spectrometer to Leverage Extensive Development of Gamma-ray TESs for Huge Arrays using Microwave Multiplexed Enabled Readout’ (SLEDGEHAMMER), a detector development project at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, acts as the basis for the detector arrays for ASCENT. SLEDGEHAMMER has tin (Sn) absorbers attached to the SU-8 epoxy posts, lithographically placed on the detectors, but we are also considering other geometries for the chips where the absorbers are attached to the chips separated from the TESs, which could help to avoid parallel path for a current flow around the detectors with these BiSn sphere attachments. In this work, we are reporting on developing a method to attach Tin (Sn) absorbers to the transition edge sensors (TESs) with 0.2 mm diameter BiSn solder spheres replacing epoxy. The goal is to improve the thermal conductivity between the absorbers and the TESs compared to what was achieved using epoxy, potentially reducing the presence of an athermal component in the tails of signal pulses. We describe our efforts toward finding optimal temperature and pressure conditions for making this contact and the progress toward contact resistance measurements of these joints.

Significant advancements have been made in understanding the physics of transition-edge sensors (TESs) over the past decade. However, key questions remain, particularly a detailed understanding of the current-dependent resistance of these detectors when biased within their superconducting transition. We use scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) microscopy (SSM) to image the local diamagnetic response of aluminum-manganese alloy (Al-Mn) transition-edge sensors (TESs) near their critical temperature of approximately 175 mK. By doing so, we gain insights into how the device dimensions influence TES transition width, which in turn affects device operation and informs optimal device design. Our images reveal that the Al-Mn thin film near the niobium (Nb) leads exhibits an excess diamagnetic response at temperatures several milli-Kelvin (mK) higher than the bulk of the film farther from the contacts. A possible origin of this behavior is a longitudinal proximity effect between the Nb and Al-Mn where the TES acts as a weak link between superconducting leads. We discuss how this effect shapes the temperature dependence of the resistance as the spacing between the leads decreases. This work demonstrates that magnetic imaging with SSM is a powerful tool for local characterization of superconducting detectors.

An excess density of quasiparticles is widely observed in superconducting films. This excess causes performance degradation in a variety of superconducting devices, including decoherence in qubits. In this Letter, we evaluate the hypothesis of [1] that the quasiparticle excess is caused by anomalously slow recombination at low quasiparticle densities due to localization in sub-gap states. We probe the density of states in aluminum and niobium films using current-voltage measurements of tunnel junctions and extract upper bounds on the energy scales of the sub-gap states and gap smearing. With these parameters, we evaluate the recombination times predicted by [1] and find that slow recombination is not predicted to occur at observed quasiparticle densities in aluminumand niobium-based superconducting devices. These results suggest that the quasiparticle excess in ordered superconductors is primarily due to non-thermal sources of quasiparticle generation and not slow recombination.

The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) is an instrument of European Space Agency's future NewAthena space observatory, with the goal to provide high-energy resolution (<4 eV at X-ray energies up to 7 keV) and high-spatial resolution (9 in.) spectroscopic imaging over the X-ray energy range from 200 eV to 12 keV, by means of an array of similar to 1500 transition-edge sensors (TESs) read out via superconducting quantum interference device time-division multiplexing (TDM). A TDM-based laboratory test bed has been assembled at Netherlands Institute for Space Research, hosting an array of 75x75 mu m(2 )TESs that are read out via 2-column x 32-row TDM. A system component that is critical to high-performance operation is the wiring harness that connects the room-temperature electronics to the cryogenic readout componentry. We report here on our characterization of such a test bed, whose harness has a length close to what was envisioned for X-IFU, which allowed us to achieve a co-added energy resolution at a level of 2.7-eV full width half maximum at 6 keV via 32-row readout. In addition, we provide an outlook on the integration of TDM readout into the X-IFU focal plane assembly development model.

AbstractSingle-photon detectors based on the superconducting transition-edge sensor are used in a number of visible to near-infrared applications, particularly for photon-number-resolving measurements in quantum information science. To be practical for large-scale spectroscopic imaging or photonic quantum computing applications, the size of visible to near-infrared transition-edge sensor arrays and their associated readouts must be increased from a few pixels to many thousands. In this manuscript, we introduce the kinetic inductance current sensor, a scalable readout technology that exploits the nonlinear kinetic inductance in a superconducting resonator to make sensitive current measurements. Kinetic inductance current sensors can replace superconducting quantum interference devices for many applications because of their ability to measure fast, high slew-rate signals, their compatibility with standard microwave frequency-division multiplexing techniques, and their relatively simple fabrication. Here, we demonstrate the readout of a visible to near-infrared transition-edge sensor using a kinetic inductance current sensor with 3.7 MHz of bandwidth. We measure a readout noise of $$1.4\,{{{\rm{pA}}}}/\sqrt{{{{\rm{Hz}}}}}$$ 1.4 pA / Hz , considerably below the detector noise at frequencies of interest, and an energy resolution of (0.137 ± 0.001) eV at 0.8 eV, comparable to resolutions observed with non-multiplexed superconducting quantum interference device readouts.

X-ray nanotomography is a powerful tool for the characterization of nanoscale materials and structures, but it is difficult to implement due to the competing requirements of X-ray flux and spot size. Due to this constraint, state-of-the-art nanotomography is predominantly performed at large synchrotron facilities. We present a laboratory-scale nanotomography instrument that achieves nanoscale spatial resolution while addressing the limitations of conventional tomography tools. The instrument combines the electron beam of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with the precise, broadband X-ray detection of a superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter. The electron beam generates a highly focused X-ray spot on a metal target held micrometers away from the sample of interest, while the TES spectrometer isolates target photons with a high signal-to-noise ratio. This combination of a focused X-ray spot, energy-resolved X-ray detection, and unique system geometry enables nanoscale, element-specific X-ray imaging in a compact footprint. The proof of concept for this approach to X-ray nanotomography is demonstrated by imaging 160 nm features in three dimensions in six layers of a Cu-SiO2 integrated circuit, and a path toward finer resolution and enhanced imaging capabilities is discussed.

Superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs) used in X-ray and γ -ray microcalorimeters suffer degraded performance if cooled in a magnetic field B sufficient to trap flux in the sensors. We report measurements of γ -ray TESs before and after implementing measures to reduce stray B fields from sources inside and outside the cryostat. These measurements showed a correlation between anomalous features in TES current–voltage (IV) curves and degraded energy resolution. After reducing internal sources of stray B field and improving shielding against external sources, both IV curves and energy resolution improved. Finally, we placed magnetized screws with remnant fields ∼ 10 T near similar γ -ray TESs in a different type of detector package and observed the same effects.

Core collapse supernovae are thought to be one of the main sources in the galaxy of elements heavier than iron. Understanding the origin of the elements is thus tightly linked to our understanding of the explosion mechanism of supernovae and supernova nucleosynthesis. X-ray and gamma-ray observations of young supernova remnants, combined with improved theoretical modeling, have resulted in enormous improvements in our knowledge of these events. The isotope Ti-44 is one of the most sensitive probes of the innermost regions of the core collapse engine, and its spatial and velocity distribution are key observables. Hard x-ray imaging spectroscopy with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has provided new insights into the structure of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), establishing the convective nature of the supernova engine. However, many questions about the details of this engine remain. We present here the concept for a balloon-borne follow-up mission called A SuperConducting ENergetic x-ray Telescope (ASCENT). ASCENT uses transition edge sensor gamma-ray microcalorimeter detectors with a demonstrated 55-eV full-width half maximum energy resolution at 97 keV. This 8- to 16-fold improvement in energy resolution over NuSTAR will allow for high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy of the Ti-44 emission. This will allow for a detailed reconstruction of gamma-ray line redshifts, widths, and shapes, allowing us to address questions such as, What is the source of the neutron star kicks? What is the dominant production pathway for Ti-44? Is the engine of Cas A unique?

We report on the 1,000-element transition-edge sensor (TES) x-ray spectrometer implementation of the TOMographic Circuit Analysis Tool (TOMCAT). TOMCAT combines a high spatial resolution scanning electron microscope (SEM) with a highly efficient and pixelated TES spectrometer to reconstruct three-dimensional maps of nanoscale integrated circuits (ICs). A 240-pixel prototype spectrometer was recently used to reconstruct ICs at the 130 nm technology node, but to increase imaging speed to more practical levels, the detector efficiency needs to be improved. For this reason, we are building a spectrometer that will eventually contain 3,000 TES microcalorimeters read out with microwave superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) multiplexing, and we currently have commissioned a 1,000 TES subarray. This still represents a significant improvement from the 240-pixel system and allows us to begin characterizing the full spectrometer performance. Of the 992 maximimum available readout channels, we have yielded 818 devices, representing the largest number of TES x-ray microcalorimeters simultaneously read out to date. These microcalorimeters have been optimized for pulse speed rather than purely energy resolution, and we measure a FWHM energy resolution of 14 eV at the 8.0 keV Cu K$\bm {\alpha}$ line.

Photon-number resolving transition-edge sensors (TESs) with near unity system detection efficiency enable novel approaches to quantum computing, for example, heralding robust Gottesman–Kitaev–Preskill qubit states. Increasing the speed of the detectors increases the rate at which these states can be heralded. In addition, depending on the details of the scheme, faster detectors can reduce the complexities of the hardware implementation. In previous work, we demonstrated that adding a small amount of gold between the tungsten film and silicon substrate can increase thermal conductance and reduce detector recovery time. In that study, the readout electronics imposed limitations on stable biasing conditions of the TES detector, and the TES could only be biased at higher than ideal values. In this report, we demonstrate the operation of the TES illuminated by a heavily attenuated pulsed laser running at 1 MHz repetition rate and examine the limits to adding gold to speed up device recovery times using a higher bandwidth readout system. The best performance was achieved by combining a 15×15μm2 tungsten TES with 5μm3 of gold, which resulted in a recovery time faster than 250 ns, with an energy resolution of 0.25 eV full-width at half maximum at 0.8 eV photon energy.

In this work, we are reporting on the development of a method to attach Sn absorbers to the Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) with BiSn spheres (metal-to-metal attachment), using a die bonder, with the aim of improving thermalization, potentially reducing the presence of an a-thermal component in the tails of signal pulses. We describe our efforts towards finding optimal temperature and pressure conditions for making this contact and the progress toward contact resistance measurements of these joints.

We report on the use of a kinetic-inductance traveling-wave parametric amplifier (KITWPA) as the first amplifier in the readout chain of a microwave superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) multiplexer (μmux). This μmux is designed to multiplex signals from arrays of low temperature detectors, such as superconducting transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters. When modulated with a periodic flux-ramp to linearize the SQUID response, the flux noise improves, on average, from 1.6 μΦ0/Hz with the KITWPA off to 0.77 μΦ0/Hz with the KITWPA on. When statically biasing the μmux to the maximally flux-sensitive point, the flux noise drops from 0.45 μΦ0/Hz to 0.2 μΦ0/Hz. We validate this new readout scheme by coupling a transition-edge sensor microcalorimeter to the μmux and detecting background radiation. The combination of μmux and KITWPA provides a variety of new capabilities including improved detector sensitivity and more efficient bandwidth utilization.

To test bound-state quantum electrodynamics (BSQED) in the strong-field regime, we have performed high precision x-ray spectroscopy of the 5g-4f and 5f- 4d transitions (BSQED contribution of 2.4 and 5.2 eV, respectively) of muonic neon atoms in the low-pressure gas phase without bound electrons. Muonic atoms have been recently proposed as an alternative to few-electron high-Z ions for BSQED tests by focusing on circular Rydberg states where nuclear contributions are negligibly small. We determined the 5g_{9/2}- 4f_{7/2} transition energy to be 6297.08±0.04(stat)±0.13(syst)  eV using superconducting transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters (5.2-5.5 eV FWHM resolution), which agrees well with the most advanced BSQED theoretical prediction of 6297.26 eV.

The 511 keV gamma-ray emission from the galactic center region may fully or partially originate from the annihilation of positrons from dark matter particles with electrons from the interstellar medium. Alternatively, the positrons could be created by astrophysical sources, involving exclusively standard model physics. We describe here a new concept for a 511 keV mission called 511-CAM (511 keV gamma-ray CAmera using Micro-calorimeters) that combines focusing gamma-ray optics with a stack of Transition Edge Sensor (TES) microcalorimeter arrays in the focal plane. The 511-CAM detector assembly has a projected 511 keV energy resolution of 390 eV Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) or better, and improves by a factor of at least 11 on the performance of state-of-the-art Ge-based Compton telescopes. Combining this unprecedented energy resolution with sub-arcmin angular resolutions afforded by Laue lens or channeling optics could make substantial contributions to identifying the origin of the 511 keV emission by discovering and characterizing point sources and measuring line-of-sight velocities of the emitting plasmas.

We have measured the 3d→2p transition x rays of kaonic ^{3}He and ^{4}He atoms using superconducting transition-edge-sensor microcalorimeters with an energy resolution better than 6 eV (FWHM). We determined the energies to be 6224.5±0.4(stat)±0.2(syst)  eV and 6463.7±0.3(stat)±0.1(syst)  eV, and widths to be 2.5±1.0(stat)±0.4(syst)  eV and 1.0±0.6(stat)±0.3(stat)  eV, for kaonic ^{3}He and ^{4}He, respectively. These values are nearly 10 times more precise than in previous measurements. Our results exclude the large strong-interaction shifts and widths that are suggested by a coupled-channel approach and agree with calculations based on optical-potential models.