Aluminum-Based Superconducting Tunnel Junction Sensors for Nuclear Recoil Spectroscopy
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2025
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| author | Fretwell, Spencer L. Bray, Connor Kim, Inwook Marino, Andrew Waters, Benjamin Cantor, Robin Hall, Ad Amaro, Pedro Andoche, Adrien Diercks, David Gillespie, Abigail Guerra, Mauro Harris, Cameron N. Harris, Jackson T. Hayen, Leendert M. Hervieux, Paul Antoine Kim, Geon Bo Lennarz, Annika Lordi, Vincenzo Machado, Jorge Machule, Peter McKeen, David Mougeot, Xavier Ponce, Francisco Ruiz, Chris Samanta, Amit Santos, José Paulo Smolsky, Joseph Stone-Whitehead, Caitlyn Templet, Joseph Van De Pontseele, Wouter Warburton, William K. Leach, K. G. Friedrich, S. |
| author_facet | Fretwell, Spencer L. Bray, Connor Kim, Inwook Marino, Andrew Waters, Benjamin Cantor, Robin Hall, Ad Amaro, Pedro Andoche, Adrien Diercks, David Gillespie, Abigail Guerra, Mauro Harris, Cameron N. Harris, Jackson T. Hayen, Leendert M. Hervieux, Paul Antoine Kim, Geon Bo Lennarz, Annika Lordi, Vincenzo Machado, Jorge Machule, Peter McKeen, David Mougeot, Xavier Ponce, Francisco Ruiz, Chris Samanta, Amit Santos, José Paulo Smolsky, Joseph Stone-Whitehead, Caitlyn Templet, Joseph Van De Pontseele, Wouter Warburton, William K. Leach, K. G. Friedrich, S. |
| contents | The BeEST experiment is searching for sub-MeV sterile neutrinos by measuring nuclear recoil energies from the decay of $^7$Be implanted into superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) sensors. The recoil spectra are affected by interactions between the radioactive implants and the sensor materials. We are therefore developing aluminum-based STJs (Al-STJs) as an alternative to existing tantalum devices (Ta-STJs) to investigate how to separate material effects in the recoil spectrum from potential signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model. Three iterations of Al-STJs were fabricated. The first had electrode thicknesses similar to existing Ta-STJs. They had low responsivity and reduced resolution, but were used successfully to measure $^7$Be nuclear recoil spectra. The second iteration had STJs suspended on thin SiN membranes by backside etching. These devices had low leakage current, but also low yield. The final iteration was not backside etched, and the Al-STJs had thinner electrodes and thinner tunnel barriers to increase signal amplitudes. These devices achieved 2.96 eV FWHM energy resolution at 50 eV using a pulsed 355 nm (~3.5 eV) laser. These results establish Al-STJs as viable detectors for systematic material studies in the BeEST experiment. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_07792 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Aluminum-Based Superconducting Tunnel Junction Sensors for Nuclear Recoil Spectroscopy Fretwell, Spencer L. Bray, Connor Kim, Inwook Marino, Andrew Waters, Benjamin Cantor, Robin Hall, Ad Amaro, Pedro Andoche, Adrien Diercks, David Gillespie, Abigail Guerra, Mauro Harris, Cameron N. Harris, Jackson T. Hayen, Leendert M. Hervieux, Paul Antoine Kim, Geon Bo Lennarz, Annika Lordi, Vincenzo Machado, Jorge Machule, Peter McKeen, David Mougeot, Xavier Ponce, Francisco Ruiz, Chris Samanta, Amit Santos, José Paulo Smolsky, Joseph Stone-Whitehead, Caitlyn Templet, Joseph Van De Pontseele, Wouter Warburton, William K. Leach, K. G. Friedrich, S. Instrumentation and Detectors The BeEST experiment is searching for sub-MeV sterile neutrinos by measuring nuclear recoil energies from the decay of $^7$Be implanted into superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) sensors. The recoil spectra are affected by interactions between the radioactive implants and the sensor materials. We are therefore developing aluminum-based STJs (Al-STJs) as an alternative to existing tantalum devices (Ta-STJs) to investigate how to separate material effects in the recoil spectrum from potential signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model. Three iterations of Al-STJs were fabricated. The first had electrode thicknesses similar to existing Ta-STJs. They had low responsivity and reduced resolution, but were used successfully to measure $^7$Be nuclear recoil spectra. The second iteration had STJs suspended on thin SiN membranes by backside etching. These devices had low leakage current, but also low yield. The final iteration was not backside etched, and the Al-STJs had thinner electrodes and thinner tunnel barriers to increase signal amplitudes. These devices achieved 2.96 eV FWHM energy resolution at 50 eV using a pulsed 355 nm (~3.5 eV) laser. These results establish Al-STJs as viable detectors for systematic material studies in the BeEST experiment. |
| title | Aluminum-Based Superconducting Tunnel Junction Sensors for Nuclear Recoil Spectroscopy |
| topic | Instrumentation and Detectors |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.07792 |