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Doriese WB, Abbamonte P, Alpert BK, et al. A practical superconducting-microcalorimeter X-ray spectrometer for beamline and laboratory science. Rev Sci Instrum. 2017;88(5):053108doi: 10.1063/1.4983316.
Doriese, W. B., Abbamonte, P., Alpert, B. K., Bennett, D. A., Denison, E. V., Fang, Y., Fischer, D. A., Fitzgerald, C. P., Fowler, J. W., Gard, J. D., Hays-Wehle, J. P., Hilton, G. C., Jaye, C., McChesney, J. L., Miaja-Avila, L., Morgan, K. M., Joe, Y. I., O'Neil, G. C., Reintsema, C. D., Rodolakis, F., Schmidt, D. R., Tatsuno, H., Uhlig, J., Vale, L. R., Ullom, J. N., & Swetz, D. S. (2017). A practical superconducting-microcalorimeter X-ray spectrometer for beamline and laboratory science. The Review of scientific instruments, 88(5), 053108. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4983316
Doriese, W B, et al. "A practical superconducting-microcalorimeter X-ray spectrometer for beamline and laboratory science." The Review of scientific instruments vol. 88,5 (2017): 053108. doi: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4983316
Doriese WB, Abbamonte P, Alpert BK, Bennett DA, Denison EV, Fang Y, Fischer DA, Fitzgerald CP, Fowler JW, Gard JD, Hays-Wehle JP, Hilton GC, Jaye C, McChesney JL, Miaja-Avila L, Morgan KM, Joe YI, O'Neil GC, Reintsema CD, Rodolakis F, Schmidt DR, Tatsuno H, Uhlig J, Vale LR, Ullom JN, Swetz DS. A practical superconducting-microcalorimeter X-ray spectrometer for beamline and laboratory science. Rev Sci Instrum. 2017 May;88(5):053108. doi: 10.1063/1.4983316. PMID: 28571411.
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Rev Sci Instrum. 2017 May;88(5):053108. doi: 10.1063/1.4983316.

A practical superconducting-microcalorimeter X-ray spectrometer for beamline and laboratory science.

The Review of scientific instruments

W B Doriese, P Abbamonte, B K Alpert, D A Bennett, E V Denison, Y Fang, D A Fischer, C P Fitzgerald, J W Fowler, J D Gard, J P Hays-Wehle, G C Hilton, C Jaye, J L McChesney, L Miaja-Avila, K M Morgan, Y I Joe, G C O'Neil, C D Reintsema, F Rodolakis, D R Schmidt, H Tatsuno, J Uhlig, L R Vale, J N Ullom, D S Swetz

Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA.
  2. Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
  3. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA.
  4. Argonne National Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
  5. Department of Chemical Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

PMID: 28571411 DOI: 10.1063/1.4983316

Abstract

We describe a series of microcalorimeter X-ray spectrometers designed for a broad suite of measurement applications. The chief advantage of this type of spectrometer is that it can be orders of magnitude more efficient at collecting X-rays than more traditional high-resolution spectrometers that rely on wavelength-dispersive techniques. This advantage is most useful in applications that are traditionally photon-starved and/or involve radiation-sensitive samples. Each energy-dispersive spectrometer is built around an array of several hundred transition-edge sensors (TESs). TESs are superconducting thin films that are biased into their superconducting-to-normal-metal transitions. The spectrometers share a common readout architecture and many design elements, such as a compact, 65 mK detector package, 8-column time-division-multiplexed superconducting quantum-interference device readout, and a liquid-cryogen-free cryogenic system that is a two-stage adiabatic-demagnetization refrigerator backed by a pulse-tube cryocooler. We have adapted this flexible architecture to mate to a variety of sample chambers and measurement systems that encompass a range of observing geometries. There are two different types of TES pixels employed. The first, designed for X-ray energies below 10 keV, has a best demonstrated energy resolution of 2.1 eV (full-width-at-half-maximum or FWHM) at 5.9 keV. The second, designed for X-ray energies below 2 keV, has a best demonstrated resolution of 1.0 eV (FWHM) at 500 eV. Our team has now deployed seven of these X-ray spectrometers to a variety of light sources, accelerator facilities, and laboratory-scale experiments; these seven spectrometers have already performed measurements related to their applications. Another five of these spectrometers will come online in the near future. We have applied our TES spectrometers to the following measurement applications: synchrotron-based absorption and emission spectroscopy and energy-resolved scattering; accelerator-based spectroscopy of hadronic atoms and particle-induced-emission spectroscopy; laboratory-based time-resolved absorption and emission spectroscopy with a tabletop, broadband source; and laboratory-based metrology of X-ray-emission lines. Here, we discuss the design, construction, and operation of our TES spectrometers and show first-light measurements from the various systems. Finally, because X-ray-TES technology continues to mature, we discuss improvements to array size, energy resolution, and counting speed that we anticipate in our next generation of TES-X-ray spectrometers and beyond.

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