David Nielsen with Dan Akerib and Kathy Kash

Characterization and Quality Control of TES used in Dark Matter detection

A relatively new class of cryogenic particle detectors involves cooling substrates to sub-100mK temperatures and recording the energy deposited in scattering events by the subsequent warming of a superconducting film patterned onto the surface of the substrate. It has proven difficult to assure the quality of these films during the fabrication process. Quality assurance therefore requires extensive cryogenic tests. The goal of this senior project is to prepare samples of superconducting films and explore possibilities to characterize them through both cryogenic test and room temperatures analysis techniques.