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Gene C. Hilton, John M. Martinis, Kent D. Irwin, Norman F. Bergren, David A. Wollman, Martin Huber, Sae Woo Nam
Abstract
We are developing high performance x-ray detectors based on superconducting transition-edge sensors (TES) for application in materials analysis and astronomy. Using our recently developed fully lithographic TES fabrication process, we have made devices with an energy resolution of 4.5 1 0.1 eV for 5.9 keV x-rays, the best reported energy resolution for any energy dispersive detectors in this energy range. These detectors utilize micromachined thermal isolation structures, and transition-edge sensors fabricated from Mo/Cu bilayers with normal-metal bountary conditions. We have found the normal-metal boundary conditions to be critical to stable and reproducible low noise operation. In this lpaper we present details of fabrication and performance of these devices.
Hilton, G.
, Martinis, J.
, Irwin, K.
, Bergren, N.
, Wollman, D.
, Huber, M.
and Nam, S.
(2001),
Microfabricated Transition-Edge X-ray Detectors, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=8415
(Accessed October 9, 2025)