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Completed TRL 1 (started at 1, targeting 2)
Superconducting Transition-Edge Sensors (TESs) hold the highest energy resolving power of any nondispersive spectrometer. They are used for imaging spectroscopy across the electromagnetic spectrum measuring gamma-rays, X-rays, UV, and optical photons and photon fluxes in the microwave band. A TES microcalorimeter measures the energy of individual photons with high quantum efficiency and without dispersive optics. TESs are "noiseless detectors" in the astronomy sense where they achieve true single photon detection with zero dark counts. The fundamental noise fluctuations in the TES simply limit the measured energy of the photons. In this work we will design and fabricate a new type of TES where the sensor material is not a superconductor at any temperature.
This proof of principle demonstration will expand the TES materials design space, improving upon the existing state-of-the-art sensitivity and energy resolution. The detectors are designed to be compatible with operation in the nonlinear regime and having their sensitivity in situ tunable with an external magnetic field.
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