High resolution x-ray transition-edge sensor cooled by tunnel junction refrigerators

We demonstrate cooling of an x-ray transition-edge sensor (TES) using solid-state refrigerators based on normal-metal/insulator/superconductor (NIS) tunnel junctions. We are able to operate the NIS refrigerators at a starting temperature of 260mK, which is 75mK above the TES transition temperature (185mK), and still achieve high quality x-ray spectra with an energy resolution of 9.5±0.3eV full width at half maximum at 5.9keV. The maximum cooling achieved by the NIS refrigerators is 110mK, from a starting temperature of 300 down to 190mK.

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