Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Transition Edge Sensor”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2016

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS)

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a four telescope array designed to characterize relic primordial gravitational waves from in ation and the optical depth to reionization through a measurement of the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) on the largest angular scales. The frequencies of the four CLASS telescopes, one at 38 GHz, two at 93 GHz, and one dichroic system at 145/217 GHz, are chosen to avoid spectral regions of high atmospheric emission and span the minimum of the polarized Galactic foregrounds: synchrotron emission at lower frequencies and dust emission at higher frequencies. Low-noise transition edge sensor detectors and a rapid front-end polarization modulator provide a unique combination of high sensitivity, stability, and control of systematics. The CLASS site, at 5200 m in the Chilean Atacama desert, allows for daily mapping of up to 70% of the sky and enables the characterization of CMB polarization at the largest angular scales. Using this combination of a broad frequency range, large sky coverage, control over systematics, and high sensitivity, CLASS will observe the reionization and recombination peaks of the CMB E- and B-mode power spectra. CLASS will make a cosmic variance limited measurement of the optical depth to reionization and will measure or place upper limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, down to a level of 0.01 (95% C.L.).

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS)↗
NASA NTRS2016

The First Multichroic Polarimeter Array on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Characterization and Performance

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) is a polarization sensitive receiver for the 6-meter Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and measures the small angular scale polarization anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The full focal plane is composed of three detector arrays, containing over 3000 transition edge sensors (TES detectors) in total. The first two detector arrays, observing at 146 gigahertz, were deployed in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The third and final array is composed of multichroic pixels sensitive to both 90 and 146 gigahertz and saw first light in February 2015. Fabricated at NIST, this dichroic array consists of 255 pixels, with a total of 1020 polarization sensitive bolometers and is coupled to the telescope with a monolithic array of broad-band silicon feedhorns. The detectors are read out using time-division SQUID multiplexing and cooled by a dilution refrigerator at 110 meter Kelvins. We present an overview of the assembly and characterization of this multichroic array in the lab, and the initial detector performance in Chile. The detector array has a TES detector electrical yield of 85 percent, a total array sensitivity of less than 10 microns Kelvin root mean square speed, and detector time constants and saturation powers suitable for ACT CMB observations.

Ho, S. P.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Characterization of AlMn TES Impedance, Noise, and Optical Efficiency in the First 150 mm Multichroic Array for Advanced ACTPol

The Advanced ACTPol (AdvACT) upgrade to the Atacama Cosmology Telescope features large arrays of multichroic pixels consisting of two orthogonal-polarization pairs of superconducting bolometers at two observing frequency bands. We present measurements of the detector properties and noise data in a subset of a fielded multichroic array of AlMn transition-edge sensor (TES) detectors. In this array, the distribution of critical temperature T(sub c) across detectors appears uniform at the percent level. The measured noise-equivalent power (NEP) distributions over approximately 1200 detectors are consistent with expectations. We find median NEPs of 4.0×10(exp −17) W/ √ Hz for low-band detectors and 6.2×10(exp −17) W/ √ Hz for high-band detectors under covered-window telescope test conditions with optical loading comparable to observing with precipitable water vapor approximately 0.5 mm. Lastly, we show the estimated detector optical efficiency, and demonstrate the ability to perform optical characterization over hundreds of detectors at once using a cryogenic blackbody source.

Crowley, Kevin T.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Optical Modeling and Polarization Calibration for CMB Measurements with Actpol and Advanced Actpol

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) is a polarization sensitive upgrade to the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, located at an elevation of 5190 m on Cerro Toco in Chile. ACTPol uses transition edge sensor bolometers coupled to orthomode transducers to measure both the temperature and polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Calibration of the detector angles is a critical step in producing polarization maps of the CMB. Polarization angle offsets in the detector calibration can cause leakage in polarization from E to B modes and induce a spurious signal in the EB and TB cross correlations, which eliminates our ability to measure potential cosmological sources of EB and TB signals, such as cosmic birefringence. We calibrate the ACTPol detector angles by ray tracing the designed detector angle through the entire optical chain to determine the projection of each detector angle on the sky. The distribution of calibrated detector polarization angles are consistent with a global offset angle from zero when compared to the EB-nulling offset angle, the angle required to null the EB cross-correlation power spectrum. We present the optical modeling process. The detector angles can be cross checked through observations of known polarized sources, whether this be a galactic source or a laboratory reference standard. To cross check the ACTPol detector angles, we use a thin film polarization grid placed in front of the receiver of the telescope, between the receiver and the secondary reflector. Making use of a rapidly rotating half-wave plate (HWP) mount we spin the polarizing grid at a constant speed, polarizing and rotating the incoming atmospheric signal. The resulting sinusoidal signal is used to determine the detector angles. The optical modeling calibration was shown to be consistent with a global offset angle of zero when compared to EB nulling in the first ACTPol results and will continue to be a part of our calibration implementation. The first array of detectors for Advanced ACTPol, the next generation upgrade to ACTPol, will be deployed in 2016.We plan to continue using both techniques and compare them to astrophysical source measurements for the Advanced ACTPol polarization calibration.

Koopman, Brian↗
NASA NTRS2016

Highly Uniform 150 mm Diameter Multichroic Polarimeter Array Deployed for CMB Detection

The Advanced Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter is an upgraded receiver for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, which has begun making measurements of the small angular scale polarization anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background using the first of four new multichroic superconducting detector arrays. Here, we review all details of the optimization and characterization of this first array, which features 2012 AlMn transition edge sensor bolometers operating at 150 and 230 GHz. We present critical temperatures, thermal conductivities,saturation powers, time constants, and sensitivities for the array. The results show high uniformity across the 150 mm wafer and good performance in the field.

Ho, Shuay-Pwu Patty↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a four telescope array designed to characterize relic primordial gravitational waves from inflation and the optical depth to reionization through a measurement of the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) on the largest angular scales. The frequencies of the four CLASS telescopes, one at 38 GHz, two at 93 GHz, and one dichroic system at 145217 GHz, are chosen to avoid spectral regions of high atmospheric emission and span the minimum of the polarized Galactic foregrounds: synchrotron emission at lower frequencies and dust emission at higher frequencies. Low-noise transition edge sensor detectors and a rapid front-end polarization modulator provide a unique combination of high sensitivity, stability, and control of systematics. The CLASS site, at 5200 m in the Chilean Atacama desert, allows for daily mapping of up to 70% of the sky and enables the characterization of CMB polarization at the largest angular scales. Using this combination of a broad frequency range, large sky coverage, control over systematics, and high sensitivity, CLASS will observe the reionization and recombination peaks of the CMB E- and B-mode power spectra. CLASS will make a cosmic variance limited measurement of the optical depth to reionization and will measure or place upper limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, down to a level of 0.01 (95% C.L.).

Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS)↗
NASA NTRS2016

Performance Assessment of Different Pulse Reconstruction Algorithms for the ATHENA X-Ray Integral Field Unit

The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) microcalorimeter, on-board Athena, with its focal plane comprising 3840 Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) operating at 90 mK, will provide unprecedented spectral-imaging capability in the 0.2-12 keV energy range. It will rely on the on-board digital processing of current pulses induced by the heat deposited in the TES absorber, as to recover the energy of each individual events. Assessing the capabilities of the pulse reconstruction is required to understand the overall scientific performance of the X-IFU, notably in terms of energy resolution degradation with both increasing energies and count rates. Using synthetic data streams generated by the X-IFU End-to-End simulator, we present here a comprehensive benchmark of various pulse reconstruction techniques, ranging from standard optimal filtering to more advanced algorithms based on noise covariance matrices. Beside deriving the spectral resolution achieved by the different algorithms, a first assessment of the computing power and ground calibration needs is presented. Overall, all methods show similar performances, with the reconstruction based on noise covariance matrices showing the best improvement with respect to the standard optimal filtering technique. Due to prohibitive calibration needs, this method might however not be applicable to the X-IFU and the best compromise currently appears to be the so-called resistance space analysis which also features very promising high count rate capabilities.

microcalorimeters↗
NASA NTRS2014

The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) for Athena

Athena is designed to implement the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme selected by the European Space Agency for the second large mission of its Cosmic Vision program. The Athena science payload consists of a large aperture high angular resolution X-ray optics (2 m2 at 1 keV) and twelve meters away, two interchangeable focal plane instruments: the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) and the Wide Field Imager. The X-IFU is a cryogenic X-ray spectrometer, based on a large array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), oering 2.5 eV spectral resolution, with approximately 5" pixels, over a field of view of 5' in diameter. In this paper, we present the X-IFU detector and readout electronics principles, some elements of the current design for the focal plane assembly and the cooling chain. We describe the current performance estimates, in terms of spectral resolution, effective area, particle background rejection and count rate capability. Finally, we emphasize on the technology developments necessary to meet the demanding requirements of the X-IFU, both for the sensor, readout electronics and cooling chain.

X-ray↗
NASA NTRS2017

PIPER Continuous Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator

We report upon the development and testing of a 4-stage adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) capable of continuous cooling at 0.100 Kelvin. This cooler is being built to cool the detector array aboard NASA's Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) observatory. The goal of this balloon mission is to measure the primordial gravitational waves that should exist if the theory of cosmological inflation is correct. At altitude, the ADR will hold the array of transition-edge sensors at 100 mK continuously while periodically rejecting heat to a 1.2 K pumped helium bath. During testing on ground, the array is held at the same temperature but heat is rejected to a 4.2 K helium bath indicating the flexibility in this coolers design.

Magnetic Cooling Sub-Kelvin ADR↗
NASA NTRS2017

Design of Magnetic Shielding and Field Coils for a TES X-Ray Microcalorimeter Test Platform

The performance of Transition-Edge Sensors (TES) and their SQUID multiplexed read-outs are very sensitive to the ambient magnetic field from Earth and fluctuations that can arise due to fluctuating magnetic fields outside of the focal plane assembly from the Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (ADR).Thus, the experimental platform we are building to test the FPA of the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) of the Athena mission needs to include a series of shields and a coil in order to meet the following requirement of magnetic field density and uniformity.

Miniussi, Antoine R.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Performance of an X-ray Microcalorimeter with a 240 μm Absorber and a 50 μm TES Bilayer

Superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters are being developed for a variety of potential astrophysics missions, including Athena. The X-ray integral field unit instrument on this mission requires close-packed pixels on a 0.25 mm pitch, and high quantum efficiency between 0.2 and 12 keV. In this work, we describe a new approach with 50 μm square TESs consisting of a Mo/Au bilayer, deposited on silicon nitride membranes to provide a weak thermal conductance to a ~50 mK heat bath. Larger TESs usually have additional normal metal stripes on top of the bilayer to reduce the noise. However, we have found that excellent spectral performance can be achieved without the need for any normal metal stripes on top of the TES. A spectral performance of 1.58+/-0.12 eV at 5.9 keV has been achieved, the best resolution seen in any of our devices with this pixel size.

Miniussi, Antoine R.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Characterization of Si-Membrane TES Bolometer Arrays for the HIRMES Instrument

The High Resolution Mid-Infrared Spectrometer (HIRMES) instrument will fly onboard NASA's airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) in 2019. HIRMES will provide astronomers with a unique observing window (25 122 µm) for exploring the evolution of protoplanetary disks into young solar systems, and the composition of our Solar System. There are two focal plane detector arrays for the instrument: a high-resolution (/ = 100,000) 8x16 detector array with a target noise-equivalent power, NEP 3x10-18 W/Hz; and a low-resolution (/ = 2,000 19,000) 16x64 detector array with a target NEP 2x10-17 W/Hz. The detectors for both of these arrays are superconducting Mo/Au bilayer transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers on thin suspended single-crystal silicon membranes. Here we present our characterization results for the detectors in both arrays, including measurements of thermal conductance with comparison to phonon transport models, saturation power, noise, and array uniformity.

Instrumentation and Photography↗
NASA NTRS2018

The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER): Current Status and Performance of the First Flight

The Primordial Inflation Polarization ExploreR (PIPER) is a balloon-borne instrument optimized to measure the polarization of the CMB at large angular scales. It will map 85% of the sky over a series of conventional balloon flights from the Northern and Southern hemispheres, measuring the B-mode polarization power spectrumover a range of multipoles from 2-300 covering both the reionization bump and the recombination peak, with sensitivity to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio down to r = 0.007. PIPER will observe in four frequency bands centered at 200, 270, 350, and 600 GHz to characterize dust foregrounds. The instrument has background-limited sensitivity provided by fully cryogenic (1.7 K) optics focusing the sky signal onto kilo-pixel arrays of time-domain multiplexed Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers held at 100 mK. Polarization sensitivity and systematiccontrol are provided by front-end Variable-delay Polarization Modulators (VPMs). PIPER had its engineering flight in October 2017 from Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This papers outlines the major components in the PIPER system discussing the conceptual design as well as specific choices made for PIPER. We also report on the results of the engineering flight, looking at the functionality of the payload systems, particularly VPM, as well as pointing out areas of improvement.

Pawlyk, Samuel↗
NASA NTRS2019

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

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 (XIFU) on the Athena X-ray Observatory. These pixels are comprised of Mo/Au transition-edge sensors (TESs) with overhanging electroplated Au/Bi absorbers. We 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 modeled the line profiles. These results are compared to the extended LSF of the Hitomi microcalorimeter pixels that used HgTe absorbers.

Superconducting devices↗
NASA NTRS2019

Design of Magnetic Shielding and Field Coils for a TES X-Ray Microcalorimeter Test Platform

The performance of transition-edge sensors (TES) and their SQUID multiplexed readouts is very sensitive to ambient magnetic field and its fluctuations. In order to run ground experiments on thousands of X-ray TES microcalorimeters with a small uniform ambient magnetic field (< 1 μT, with a uniformity < 0.1 μT), we need a very low ambient field to be trapped into the superconducting magnetic shields. We have designed a sub-Kelvin test platform to reach these specifications. For this purpose, we modeled a new design for the shielding consisting of a series of different mu-metal and superconducting shields, including a niobium shield at 50 mK, a cryoperm (A4K) shield at 3 K, and a mu-metal shield at 300 K. A magnetic field coil is used to vary the local perpendicular magnetic field over the TES array. To optimize this field, we have studied a number of different field-coil designs and the impact of the different shield geometries, in order to reach the required field uniformity.

Miniussi, Antoine R.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Sub-Kelvin Cooling for Two Kilopixel Bolometer Arrays in the PIPER Receiver

The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) is a balloon-borne telescope mission to search for inflationary gravitational waves from the early universe. PIPER employs two 32 × 40 arrays of superconducting transition-edge sensors, which operate at 100 mK. An open bucket Dewar of liquid helium maintains the receiver and telescope optics at 1.7 K. We describe the thermal design of the receiver and sub-Kelvin cooling with a continuous adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (CADR). The CADR operates between 70 and 130 mK and provides ≈10 μW cooling power at 100 mK, nearly five times the loading of the two detector assemblies. We describe electronics and software to robustly control the CADR, overall CADR performance in flightlike integrated receiver testing, and practical considerations for implementation in the balloon float environment.

Switzer, E. R.↗
NASA NTRS2020

First Operation of TES Microcalorimeters in Space with the Micro-X Sounding Rocket

Micro-X is a sounding rocket-borne instrument that uses a microcalorimeter array to perform high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy. This instrument flew for the first time on July 22nd, 2018, from the White Sands Missile Range, USA. This flight marks the first successful operation of a transition-edge sensor array and its time-division multiplexing readout system in space. This launch was dedicated to the observation of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. A failure in the attitude control system prevented the rocket from pointing and led to no time on target. The onboard calibration source provided X-rays in flight, and it is used to compare detector performance during preflight integration, flight, and after the successful post-flight recovery. This calibration data demonstrate the capabilities of the detector in a space environment as well as its potential for future flight.

TES↗
NASA NTRS2020

Overview of the Medium and High Frequency Telescopes of the LiteBIRD Satellite Mission

LiteBIRD is a JAXA-led Strategic Large-Class mission designed to search for the existence of the primordial gravitational waves produced during the inflationary phase of the Universe, through the measurements of their imprint onto the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). These measurements, requiring unprecedented sensitivity, will be performed over the full sky, at large angular scales, and over 15 frequency bands from 34 GHz to 448 GHz. The LiteBIRD instruments consist of three telescopes, namely the Low-, Medium- and High-Frequency Telescope (respectively LFT, MFT and HFT). We present in this paper an overview of the design of the Medium-Frequency Telescope (89–224 GHz) and the High-Frequency Telescope (166–448 GHz), the so-called MHFT, under European responsibility, which are two cryogenic refractive telescopes cooled down to 5 K. They include a continuous rotating half-wave plate as the first optical element, two high-density polyethylene (HDPE) lenses and more than three thousand transition-edge sensor (TES) detectors cooled to 100 mK. We provide an overview of the concept design and the remaining specific challenges that we have to face in order to achieve the scientific goals of LiteBIRD.

LiteBIRD↗