Progress toward optimizing energy and arrival-time resolution with a transition-edge sensor from simulations of X-ray-photon events

TL;DR

This paper presents a low-computational-cost method for optimizing energy and arrival-time resolution in superconducting transition-edge sensors used in X-ray telescopes, achieving high precision across a broad energy range.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel technique that improves energy and timing resolution of TESs by focusing on pulse height and width, suitable for space-based applications.

Findings

Energy resolution between 1.32 eV and 2.98 eV

Arrival-time resolution between 163 ns and 3.85 ns

Applicable for energies 0.1 keV to 30 keV

Abstract

Superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs) carried by X-ray telescopes are powerful tools for the study of neutron stars and black holes. Several methods, such as optimal filtering or principal component analysis, have already been developed to analyse X-ray data from these sensors. However, these techniques may be hard to implement in space. Our goal is to develop a lower-computational-cost technique that optimizes energy and time resolution when X-ray photons are detected by a TES. TESs exhibit a non-linear response with photon energy. Therefore, at low energies we focus on the current-pulse height whereas at high energies we consider the current-pulse width, to retrieve energy and arrival time of X-ray photons. For energies between 0.1 keV and 30 keV and with a sampling rate of 195 kHz, we obtain an energy resolution (full width at half the maximum) between 1.32 eV and 2.98 eV. We also get an arrival-time resolution (full duration at half the maximum) between 163 ns and 3.85 ns. To improve the accuracy of these results it will be essential to get a thorough description of non-stationary noise in a TES, and to develop a robust on-board identification method of pile-up events.