Transition-edge sensor with enhanced electrothermal feedback for cryogenic particle detection
AssigneeThe Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
InventorsSae Woo Nam, Blas Cabrera
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Abstract
A superconducting transition-edge sensor with an electrothermal-feedback circuit, a heat sink thermally coupled thereto, a bias-feedback circuit electrically coupled with the electrothermal feedback circuit, and a current sensor electrically coupled with the bias-feedback circuit and inductively coupled with the electrothermal-feedback circuit.
Claims21
A superconducting sensor for measuring an energy pulse of an elementary particle, said superconducting sensor having an operating-temperature range, a superconducting transition, and an intrinsic recovery time associated with said energy pulse, said operating-temperature range corresponding to said superconducting transition, said superconducting sensor comprising:
- electrothermal-feedback means for maintaining said operating-temperature range by utilizing a voltage bias that produces a variable electrical current through said electrothermal-feedback means;
- a heat sink thermally coupled to said electrothermal-feedback means and held at a temperature below said operating-temperature range;
- bias-feedback means, electrically coupled with said electrothermal-feedback means, for providing said superconducting sensor with an enhanced recovery time associated with said energy pulse, said enhanced recovery time being substantially shorter than said intrinsic recovery time;
- and
- current-sensing means, electrically coupled with said bias-feedback means, for measuring changes in said variable electrical current caused by said energy pulse and for sending a signal corresponding to said changes to said bias-feedback means.
A superconducting sensor for measuring an energy pulse of an elementary particle, said superconducting sensor comprising:
- an electrothermal-feedback circuit;
- a heat sink thermally coupled to said electrothermal-feedback circuit;
- a bias-feedback circuit, electrically coupled with said electrothermal-feedback circuit;
- and
- a current sensor electrically coupled with said bias-feedback circuit.
A superconducting sensor for measuring an energy pulse of an elementary particle, said sensor comprising:
- a detector element having an operating-temperature range and a superconducting transition, said operating-temperature range corresponding to said superconducting transition, said detector element having a variable resistance that is temperature-dependent and an intrinsic recovery time associated with said energy pulse;
- a heat sink thermally coupled to said detector element and held at a temperature below said operating-temperature range;
- biasing means, electrically coupled with said detector element, for maintaining said detector element within said operating-temperature range by applying a voltage bias across said detector element, said voltage bias resulting in a variable current through said detector element;
- bias-feedback means electrically coupled with said biasing means for reducing said voltage bias during said energy pulse to provide said detector element with an enhanced recovery time associated with said energy pulse, said enhanced recovery time being substantially shorter than said intrinsic recovery time;
- and
- current-sensing means, electrically coupled with said bias-feedback means and inductively coupled with said biasing means, for measuring changes in said variable current caused by said energy pulse and for sending a signal corresponding to said changes to said bias-feedback means.
A method for measuring an energy of a pulse produced by an elementary particle, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a detector element having an operating-temperature range and a superconducting transition, said operating-temperature range corresponding to said superconducting transition, said detector element having a variable resistance that is temperature dependent;
- thermally coupling said detector element to a heat sink, said heat sink being held at a temperature below said operating-temperature region;
- maintaining said detector element in said operating-temperature region by voltage-biasing said detector element to produce a variable current therethrough and by reducing the voltage bias during said energy pulse according to a feedback signal to provide said detector element with an abbreviated recovery time associated with said pulse;
- and
- measuring change in said variable current during said abbreviated recovery time, said feedback signal being based on these measurements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.