Refinement of Transition-Edge Sensor Dimensions for the X-Ray Integral Field Unit on ATHENA

At NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, we have previously demonstrated a kilo-pixel array of transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters capable of meeting the energy resolution requirements of the future X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) instrument that is being developed for the Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics (ATHENA) observatory satellite. The TES design in this array was a square device with side length of 50 μm. Here, we describe studies of TES designs with small variations of the dimensions, exploring lengths, parallel to the current direction, ranging from 75 μm to 50 μm and widths, perpendicular to the current direction, ranging from 50 μm to 15 μm. We describe how these changes impact transition properties, thermal conductance and magnetic field sensitivity. In particular, we show that using a TES with a length of 50 μm and width of 30 μm may be a promising route to reduce the maximum time-derivative of the TES current in an X-ray pulse and reduce the sensitivity of the TES to magnetic field.

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