Dark counts in optical superconducting transition-edge sensors for rare-event searches
Superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs) are a type of quantum sensor known for their high single-photon detection efficiency and low background. This makes TESs ideal for particle-physics experiments searching for rare events. In this work, we present a comprehensive characterization of the background in optical TESs, distinguishing three types of events: electrical-noise, high-energy, and photonlike events. We introduce computational methods to automate the classification of events. We experimentally verify and simulate the source of the high-energy events. We also isolate the photonlike events, the expected signal in dielectric haloscopes searching for dark-matter dark photons, and achieve a photonlike dark-count rate of 3.6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ in the 0.8--3.2 eV energy range.
Authors
- Hobey Garrone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9502-8662)
- E. Monticone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4267-2484)
- Fiona Alder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4005-5543)
- Alexander J. Millar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3526-0526)
- F. Arneodo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1061-0510)
- K. Morå (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2011-1889)
- Tengiz Ibrayev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1965-4645)
- L. Manenti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7590-0175)
- I. Sarnoff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4914-4991)
- O. Fawwaz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7151-5103)
- Carlo Pepe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2332-6674)
- M. Rajteri
- Artem Knyazev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5185-1624)
- Panagiotis Oikonomou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2296-6415)
- Hamad Shams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9585-2649)
Institutions
- New York University Abu Dhabi (AE)
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Politecnico di Torino (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (IT)
- University College London (GB)
- New York University (US)
- Columbia University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Applied
- Published
- 2024-08-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevapplied.22.024051
- Citations
- 14
- Primary Topic
- Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.23
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- John Templeton Foundation