Pulse Tube Interference in Cryogenic Sensors (General Abstract)
When a voltage is applied to a thin superconducting strip cooled just above its critical temperature, the superconductor becomes its own internal thermostat; an increase in temperature will cause the resistance to rise, which lowers the amount of current and drops the temperature. Likewise, a decrease in temperature causes the resistance to fall, increasing the current and raising the temperature. This change in current due to changes in energy makes the superconductor an ideal energy sensor. Due to the low noise, precise energy resolution, and time stamping of particles, these detectors have several potential applications, ranging from measuring cosmic microwave background, dark matter detection, or measuring the mass of the neutrino. SLAC is currently developing tools to readout data from an array of 10000 of these sensors.