Journal Article

Physics and Applications of Metallic Magnetic Calorimeters

Fleischmann, A., Gastaldo, L., Kempf, S., Enss, C.

2018

Overview

Metallic magnetic calorimeters (MMCs) are calorimetric low-temperature particle detectors that are currently strongly advancing the state of the art in energy-dispersive single particle detection. They are typically operated at temperatures below 100 mK and make use of a metallic, paramagnetic temperature sensor to transduce the temperature rise of the detector upon the absorption of an energetic particle into a change of magnetic flux which is sensed by a superconducting quantum interference device. This outstanding interplay between a high-sensitivity thermometer and a near quantum-limited amplifier results in a very fast signal rise time, an excellent energy resolution, a large dynamic range, a quantum efficiency close to 100% as well as an almost ideal linear detector response. For this reason, a growing number of groups located all over the world is developing MMC arrays of various sizes which are routinely used in a variety of applications. Within this paper, we briefly review the state of the art of metallic magnetic calorimeters. This includes a discussion of the detection principle, sensor materials and detector geometries, readout concepts, the structure of modern detectors as well as the state-of-the-art detector performance.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials / Condensed Matter Physics / Energetic particles / Energy / Energy resolution / Geometry / Heat / Low temperature / Low temperature physics / Magnetic fields / Magnetic flux / Magnetic Materials / Magnetism / Metal matrix composites / Physics / Physics and Astronomy / Quantum efficiency / Radiation counters / Sensors / State-of-the-art reviews / Superconducting quantum interference devices / Temperature / Temperature sensors