Advanced Multiplexed TES Arrays Project

We propose a program to mature the current x-ray microcalorimeter technology, while developing transformational technology that will enable megapixel arrays. X-ray calorimeters based on superconducting transition-edge sensors achieve the highest energy resolution of any non-dispersive detector technology.

The performance of single x-ray calorimeter pixels has reached that required for many possible future missions such as IXO, RAM, and Generation-X, but further optimization is still useful. In the last years, we have made progress in developing techniques to control and engineer the properties of the superconducting transition. We propose to continue this single-pixel optimization, and to improve both the practical and theoretical understanding of the correlation between alpha, beta, and noise to identify favorable regions of parameter space for different instruments.