Effect of Magnetic Fields on TiAu TES Bolometers for the SAFARI Instrument on the SPICA FIR Telescope

• Published in: Journal of low temperature physics 2012-05, Vol.167 (3-4), p.242-247
• Main Authors: Hijmering, R. A., Khosropanah, P., Ridder, M., Lindeman, M., Gottardi, L., Bruijn, M., van der Kuur, J., de Korte, P., Gao, J.-R., Hoevers, H., Jackson, B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Condensed Matter Physics; Magnetic Materials; Magnetism; Physics; Physics and Astronomy
• ISSN: 0022-2291; 1573-7357
• DOI: 10.1007/s10909-012-0497-7

At the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) we are developing Transition Edge Sensors (TES) bolometers for the SAFARI Imaging Spectrometer on the SPICA telescope. With the current design of the SPICA telescope a background magnetic field of about a Gauss with fluctuations of a couple percent is expected. The effect of this external magnetic field on the bolometer needs to be well understood in order to design effective shielding. We present the results of an investigation of magnetic field on the performance of TES bolometers. For this experiment we used a Ti/Au TES bolometer which has a measured NEP of 5.0×10 −19 W/Hz 1/2 . The TES is exposed to a parallel and perpendicular magnetic field of varying strength and the baseline and responsivity are determined. We see that the bolometers are sensitive to the perpendicular field but are relative insensitive to the parallel magnetic field. Fluctuations with a period of 30 mG are present as function of perpendicular magnetic field.