0000000000681467
AUTHOR
Gregory S. Tucker
B-MINE, the balloon-borne microcalorimeter nuclear line explorer
B-MINE is a concept for a balloon mission designed to probe the deepest regions of a supernova explosion by detecting Ti-44 emission at 68 keV with spatial and spectral resolutions that are sufficient to determine the extent and velocity distribution of the Ti-44 emitting region. The payload introduces the concept of focusing optics and microcalorimeter spectroscopy to nuclear line emission astrophysics. B-MINE has a thin, plastic foil telescope multilayered to maximize the reflectivity in a 20 keV band centered at 68 keV and a microcalorimeter array optimized for the same energy band. This combination provides a reduced background, an energy resolution of 50 eV and a 3sigma sensitivity in …
NTD-GE-based microcalorimeter performance
Our group has been developing x-ray microcalorimeters consisting of neutron transmutation doped (NTD) germanium thermistors attached to superconducting tin absorbers. We discuss the performance of single pixel x-ray detectors, and describe an array technology. In this paper we describe the read-out circuit that allows us to measure fast signals in our detectors as this will be important in understanding the primary cause of resolution broadening. We describe briefly a multiplexing scheme that allows a number of different calorimeters to be read out using a single JFET. We list the possible causes of broadening and give a description of the experiment which best demonstrates the cause of the…