Extended Line Spread Function of TES Microcalorimeters With Au/Bi Absorbers

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Extended_Line_Spread_Function_of_TES_Microcalorimeters_With_Au_Bi_Absorbers.pdf (1.65 MB)

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https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8661601

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https://doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2019.2903420
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/24026

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UMBC Center for Space Sciences and Technology (CSST) / Center for Research and Exploration in Space Sciences & Technology II (CRSST II)
UMBC Faculty Collection
UMBC Physics Department

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Author/Creator ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2237-6696
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9247-3010
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4096-4675
 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-9338

Date

2019-03-06

Type of Work

journal articles
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Citation of Original Publication

M. E. Eckart et al., "Extended Line Spread Function of TES Microcalorimeters With Au/Bi Absorbers," in IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 1-5, Aug. 2019, Art no. 2101205, doi: 10.1109/TASC.2019.2903420.

Rights

This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Public Domain Mark 1.0

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Abstract

Microcalorimeters have the potential to provide line shapes well described by a single Gaussian broadening term of few-eV width. This attribute makes the detectors especially well suited for x-ray astrophysics observations; however, low-level non-Gaussian broadening terms are expected and must be characterized. These terms depend on the composition of the x-ray absorber, the detailed x-ray absorption physics, the device thermalization processes, and the incident x-ray energy. Here we present the first measurements targeted at understanding the extended line-spread function (LSF) of x-ray microcalorimeter pixels under development for the X-ray Integral Field Unit on the Athena X-ray Observatory. These pixels are composed of Mo/Au transition-edge sensors with overhanging electroplated Au/Bi absorbers. We have measured the line shapes using monochromatic x-ray sources with <1-eV width at several x-ray energies (0.85, 0.93, 1.25, 1.5, 5.4, and 8.0 keV) across the instrument bandpass (0.3–12 keV) and have modeled the line profiles. These results are compared to the extended LSF of the Hitomi microcalorimeter pixels that used HgTe absorbers.