Abstract
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 \(100\,\mathrm {mK}\) 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.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our colleagues for many stimulating and fruitful discussions as well as the participation in different experiments. We also would like to thank T. Wolf as well as the KIP cleanroom team for technical support during device fabrication. The work was partially performed in the framework of the DFG research unit FOR2202 (funding under En299/7-1 and Ga2219/2-1) as well as the European Microkelvin Platform EMP. Furthermore, we greatly acknowledge funding by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (funding under Grant BMBF 05P12VHFA5) as well as by the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (funding under Grant agreement 664732).
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Kempf, S., Fleischmann, A., Gastaldo, L. et al. Physics and Applications of Metallic Magnetic Calorimeters. J Low Temp Phys 193, 365–379 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-018-1891-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-018-1891-6