Magnetically-coupled microcalorimeter arrays for x-ray astrophysics with sub-eV spectral resolution and large format capability Project

The instrumentation needed is a broad-band imaging spectrometer - basically an x-ray camera that can precisely resolve x-ray energies and fluxes over a large field-of-view. While we do not claim that in 3 years we will have developed such detectors, we advocate developing the technology that has the greatest potential for achieving this. Theoretically, magnetically-coupled microcalorimeters are best equipped to achieve sub-eV energy resolution in very large formats.

We propose to build upon the work carried out by our group on metallic magnetic calorimeters (MMC) in the antecedent program. The great promise of MMCs for sub-eV energy resolution has been recognized for years. During our current research program, an accident in detector fabrication produced devices that derived their sensitivity from a different operating principle - the temperature dependence of a superconduc