Funding
EMP is funded through the Horizon2020 programme of the European Commission.
Selected Publications

Physics and Applications of Metallic Magnetic Calorimeters

S. Kempf, A. Fleischmann, L. Gastaldo, C. Enss

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 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 rou- tinely 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.


J. Low Temp. Phys. 193, 365–379 (2018)

doi: 10.1007/s10909-018-1891-6