Characterization of the microwave multiplexing readout and TESs for HOLMES

Abstract

A powerful tool to determine the effective electron-neutrino mass is the calorimetric measurement of the energy released in a nuclear beta decay. Performing a precision measurement of the end point of the Electron Capture decay spectrum of 163Ho, HOLMES aims at pushing down the sensitivity on the neutrino mass below 1 eV. In its final configuration HOLMES will deploy an array of 1000 microcalorimeters based on Transition Edge Sensors with gold absorbers in which the 163Ho will be ion implanted. The best technique to easily read out such a number of detector with a common readout line is the microwave frequency domain multiplexing. Therefore, the TESs are coupled to multiplexed rf-SQUIDS operated in flux ramp modulation for linearization purposes. The rf-SQUIDS are then coupled to superconducting quarter wavelength resonators in the GHz range, from which the modulating signal is finally recovering using software defined radio techniques. In the last two years an extensive R&D activity has been carried out in order to maximize the multiplexing factor while preserving the performances of each detector which fulfil the HOLMES requirements ( i.e. an energy resolution of few eV and a time-resolution of a few microseconds). We report here the progress made towards the characterization of the multiplexing system together with the results of the characterization of the HOLMES detectors.