Performance of Magnetic Penetration Thermometers for X-ray Astronomy.

The ideal X-ray camera for astrophysics would have more than a million pixels and provide an energy resolution of better than 1 eV FWHM for energies up to 10 keV. We have microfabricated and characterized thin-film magnetic penetration thermometers (MPTs) that show great promise towards meeting these capabilities. MPTs operate in similar fashion to metallic magnetic calorimeters (MMCs), except that a superconducting sensor takes the place of a paramagnetic sensor and it is the temperature dependence of the superconductor's diamagnetic response that provides the temperature sensitivity. We present a description of the design and performance of our prototype thin-film MPTs with MoAu bilayer sensors, which have demonstrated an energy resolution of ∼2 eV FWHM at 1.5 keV and 4.3 eV FWHM at 5.9 keV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]