Exploitation of the Timing Capabilities of Metallic Magnetic Calorimeters for a Coincidence Measurement Scheme

In this report, we compare two filter algorithms for extracting timing information using novel metallic magnetic calorimeter detectors, applied to the precision X-ray spectroscopy of highly charged ions in a storage ring. Accurate timing information is crucial when exploiting coincidence conditions for background suppression to obtain clean spectra. For X-rays emitted by charge-changing interactions between ions and a target, this is a well-established technique when relying on conventional semiconductor detectors that offer a good temporal resolution. However, until recently, such a coincidence scheme had never been realized with metallic magnetic calorimeters, which typically feature much longer signal rise times. In this report, we present optimized timing filter algorithms for this type of detector. Their application to experimental data recently obtained at the electron cooler of CRYRING@ESR at GSI, Darmstadt is discussed

Towards an Intrinsic Doppler Correction for X-ray Spectroscopy of Stored Ions at CRYRING@ESR

We report on a new experimental approach for the Doppler correction of X-rays emitted by heavy ions, using novel metallic magnetic calorimeter detectors which uniquely combine a high spectral resolution with a broad bandwidth acceptance. The measurement was carried out at the electron cooler of CRYRING@ESR at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany. The X-ray emission associated with the radiative recombination of cooler electrons and stored hydrogen-like uranium ions was investigated using two novel microcalorimeter detectors positioned under 0∘ and 180∘ with respect to the ion beam axis. This new experimental setup allowed the investigation of the region of the N, M → L transitions in helium-like uranium with a spectral resolution unmatched by previous studies using conventional semiconductor X-ray detectors. When assuming that the rest-frame energy of at least a few of the recorded transitions is well-known from theory or experiments, a precise measurement of the Doppler shifted line positions in the laboratory system can be used to determine the ion beam velocity using only spectral information. The spectral resolution achievable with microcalorimeter detectors should, for the first time, allow intrinsic Doppler correction to be performed for the precision X-ray spectroscopy of stored heavy ions. A comparison with data from a previous experiment at the ESR electron cooler, as well as the conventional method of conducting Doppler correction using electron cooler parameters, will be discussed

Highly Charged Ions for High-Resolution Soft X-ray Grating Monochromator Optimisation

The energy-resolving performance of a synchrotron radiation monochromator can be characterised by measuring the fluorescence response of a gas in scans across characteristic absorption lines. Here, we describe a method using exceptionally narrow absorption features in the soft x-ray range. The features belong to helium-like ions and examples of the transition 1s → 2p in O$^{6+}$ and Ne$^{8+}$ are shown. We describe the instrument PolarX-EBIT and show typical data. A performance with ten times sharper effective feature width, when compared to neutral-gas absorption features, is demonstrated

Fundamental Physics in the Gravitational-Wave Era

International audienceRecording a GW […] has never been a big motivation for LIGO, the motivation has always been to open a new window to the Universe.—Kip Thorne (BBC interview, 2016)The landmark detection of gravitati..

Exploitation of the Timing Capabilities of Metallic Magnetic Calorimeters for a Coincidence Measurement Scheme

In this report, we compare two filter algorithms for extracting timing information using novel metallic magnetic calorimeter detectors, applied to the precision X-ray spectroscopy of highly charged ions in a storage ring. Accurate timing information is crucial when exploiting coincidence conditions for background suppression to obtain clean spectra. For X-rays emitted by charge-changing interactions between ions and a target, this is a well-established technique when relying on conventional semiconductor detectors that offer a good temporal resolution. However, until recently, such a coincidence scheme had never been realized with metallic magnetic calorimeters, which typically feature much longer signal rise times. In this report, we present optimized timing filter algorithms for this type of detector. Their application to experimental data recently obtained at the electron cooler of CRYRING@ESR at GSI, Darmstadt is discussed

Integration of maXs-type microcalorimeter detectors for high-resolution x-ray spectroscopy into the experimental environment at the CRYRING@ESR electron cooler

We report on the first integration of novel magnetic microcalorimeter detectors (MMCs), developed within SPARC (Stored Particles Atomic Physics Research Collaboration), into the experimental environment of storage rings at GSI, Darmstadt, namely at the electron cooler of CRYRING@ESR. Two of these detector systems were positioned at the 0$^\circ$ and 180$^\circ$ view ports of the cooler section to obtain high-resolution x-ray spectra originating from a stored beam of hydrogen-like uranium interacting with the cooler electrons. While previous test measurements with microcalorimeters at the accelerator facility of GSI were conducted in the mode of well-established stand-alone operation, for the present experiment we implemented several notable modifications to exploit the full potential of this type of detector for precision x-ray spectroscopy of stored heavy ions. Among these are a new readout system compatible with the multi branch system data acquisition platform of GSI, the synchronization of a quasi-continuous energy calibration with the operation cycle of the accelerator facility, as well as the first exploitation of the maXs detectors' time resolution to apply coincidence conditions for the detection of photons and charge-changed ions