Schwemmbauer, C.
, Lita, A.
, Hochberg, Y.
, Lindner, A.
, Januschek, F.
, Meyer, M.
and Lehmann, B.
(2025),
First direct search for light dark matter interactions in a transition-edge sensor, Physical Review Research
(Accessed July 12, 2025)
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
First direct search for light dark matter interactions in a transition-edge sensor
Published
Author(s)
Christina Schwemmbauer, , Yonit Hochberg, Axel Lindner, Friederike Januschek, Manuel Meyer, Benjamin Lehmann
Abstract
We propose the use of transition-edge sensor (TES) single-photon detectors as a simultaneous target and sensor for direct dark matter searches, and report results from the first search of this kind. We perform a 489 h science run with a TES device optimized for the detection of 1064nm photons, with a mass of ∼0.2 ng and an energy threshold of ∼0.3 eV, and set new limits on dark matter interactions with both electrons and nuclei for dark matter with mass below the MeV scale. With their excellent energy resolution, TESs enable search strategies that are complementary to recent results from superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors and kinetic inductance detectors. We show that next-generation TES arrays hold promise to probe new regions of light dark matter parameter space.Citation
Physical Review Research
Pub Type
Journals
Keywords
dark matter search, transition-edge sensors
Citation
Issues
If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact [email protected].
Created June 23, 2025, Updated July 9, 2025