Thermoelectric Single-Photon Detectors for X-Ray/UV Radiation

A feasibility study of megapixel microcalorimeter arrays, based on thermoelectric energy to voltage conversion and digital superconducting readout, is presented. The design concept originated from the philosophy of employing the simplest principles at the single-pixel level to enable large arrays without sacrificing energy resolution, fast operation speed, and quantum efficiency. Initial experimental tests confirm the basic predictions of theory, and show no major obstacle in achieving the desired characteristics

Muonium as a shallow center in GaN

A paramagnetic muonium (Mu) state with an extremely small hyperfine parameter was observed for the first time in single-crystalline GaN below 25 K. It has a highly anisotropic hyperfine structure with axial symmetry along the [0001] direction, suggesting that it is located either at a nitrogen-antibonding or a bond-centered site oriented parallel to the c-axis. Its small ionization energy (=< 14 meV) and small hyperfine parameter (--10^{-4} times the vacuum value) indicate that muonium in one of its possible sites produces a shallow state, raising the possibility that the analogous hydrogen center could be a source of n-type conductivity in as-grown GaN.Comment: 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Letter

Sensor Development for Single-Photon Thermoelectric Detectors

As we reported earlier [1], thermoelectric detectors can be competitive as nondispersive energy resolving focal-plane instruments in X-ray/UV spectrum. The first generations of prototype devices demonstrated the viability of detector design and provided good agreement between theoretical expectations and experimental data. These devices exploited sensors made of gold with a small fraction of iron impurity. To get the projected high resolution one needs another type of material, namely, lanthanum-cerium hexaborides. We report on the first experimental tests of the feasibility of lanthanum-cerium films as sensor materials. Progress with thin films of these materials argues for the success of these thermoelectric detectors

Voltage Responses to Optical Pulses of Unbiased Normal and Superconducting Samples

The direct transformation of the energy of an incident high-energy photon into a measurable potential difference within an absorbing metal is investigated. Experimental evidence is presented that the effect arises from the inherent energy dependence of the electronic density of states, rather than from a simple temperature excursion. The similarities between the results on Al and YBa2Cu3O7 samples indicate that the effect is universal in nature. We assert it may be used as the basis of a fast, energy resolving, individual photon detector for the ultraviolet radiation and x-rays