Nuclear Electronics with Quantum Cryogenic Detectors E-Book

Vladimir Polushkin

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1160

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

NUCLEAR ELECTRONICS WITH QUANTUM CRYOGENIC DETECTORS An ideal, comprehensive reference on quantum cryogenic detector instrumentation for the semiconductor and nuclear electronics industries Quantum nuclear electronics is an important scientific and technological field that overviews the development of the most advanced analytical instrumentation. This instrumentation covers a broad range of applications such as astrophysics, fundamental nuclear research facilities, chemical nano-spectroscopy laboratories, remote sensing, security systems, forensic investigations, and more. In the years since the first edition of this popular resource, the discipline has developed from demonstrating the unprecedented energy resolving power of individual devices to building large frame cameras with hundreds of thousands of pixel arrays capable of measuring and processing massive information flow. Building upon its first edition, the second edition of Nuclear Electronics with Quantum Cryogenic Detectors reflects the latest advances by focusing on novel microwave kinetic inductance detection devices (MKIDs), the microwave superconducting quantum interferometers (MSQUIDs) extending by orders of magnitude the scalability of cryogenic detectors implementing newly developed multiplexing techniques and decoding algorithms. More, it reflects on the interaction of quantum cryogenic detectors--which in turn can be paired with semiconductor large frame cameras to provide a broad picture of a sky or chemical sample--and quantum devices, making this second edition of Nuclear Electronics a one-stop reference for the combined technologies. The book also provides an overview of latest developments in front-end electronics, signal processing channels, and cryogenics--all components of quantum spectroscopic systems--and provides guidance on the design and applications of the future quantum cryogenic ultra-high-resolution spectrometers. Nuclear Electronics with Quantum Cryogenic Detectors readers will also find: * Fully revised material from the first edition relating to cryogenic requirements * Brand new chapters on semiconductor radiation sensors, cooling and magnetic shielding for cryogenic detector systems; front-end readout electronic circuits for quantum cryogenic detectors; energy resolution of quantum cryogenic spectrometers; and applications of spectrometers based on cryogenic detectors * A number of brand-new chapters dedicated to applications using MSQUID multiplexing technique, an area that will dominate the cryogenic detector field in the next decades Nuclear Electronics with Quantum Cryogenic Detectors provides a comprehensive overview of the entire discipline for researchers, industrial engineers, and graduate students involved in the development of high-precision nuclear measurements, nuclear analytical instrumentation, and advanced superconductor primary sensors. It is also a helpful resource for electrical and electronic engineers and physicists in the nuclear industry, as well as specialist researchers or professionals working in cryogenics applications like biomagnetism, quantum computing, gravitation measurement, and more.

Leseprobe

Nuclear Electronics with Quantum Cryogenic Detectors

Second Edition

Vladimir Polushkin

Business and Technological Consultant, MA, PhD, MBA

This second edition first published 2022© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Edition HistoryJohn Wiley & Sons Ltd (1e, 2004)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

The right of Vladimir Polushkin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.

Registered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USAJohn Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

Editorial OfficeThe Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print‐on‐demand. Some content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of WarrantyIn view of ongoing research, equipment modifications, changes in governmental regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to the use of experimental reagents, equipment, and devices, the reader is urged to review and evaluate the information provided in the package insert or instructions for each chemical, piece of equipment, reagent, or device for, among other things, any changes in the instructions or indication of usage and for added warnings and precautions. While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data has been applied for

ISBN 9781119834687 (Hardback); 9781119834694 (Adobe PDF); 9781119834717 (e‐Pub)

Cover Design: WileyCover Image: © Alexander Raths/Shutterstock

Preface to the Second Edition

Nuclear Electronics as a scientific field makes a vital contribution to our everyday life. Even the non‐technical general public would recognize many applications of the discipline and their significance for our society, e.g. systems that sustain operation and safety of nuclear reactors in power stations, ship engines, or submarines, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, Computed Controlled Tomography Scanners in medicine, large telescopes in Astrophysics. Less known, but equally critically important nuclear analytical instruments ensure the food safety on supermarket shelves, security of our airports, forensic investigations of residues in criminalistics, monitoring petrol quality, and many other implementations. The technological advance in nanotechnology, life science, biochemistry, ecology, medicine, semiconductors, remote sensing has become more and more dependent on the information which comes uniquely from the nuclear radiation sensors. The information they produce can either be a chemical composition of various samples, or a crystal structure, or a surface morphology, or recognition and characterization of individual layers in a multilayer formation, or a mass distribution in molecular specimens, or DNA structure. The possibilities, already very impressive, still expand rapidly, practically on the daily basis. Besides, in almost all already known applications, there is an ever‐pressing demand for more detailed analysis combined with improved productivity to scan increasing volumes of samples per unit time. To meet this demand, Nuclear Electronics specialists conduct continuous research into new more advanced detection techniques and perfect those that already exist to deliver the best possible resolution, throughput, detection efficiency, performance stability, and data reproducibility.

Nuclear Electronics evolved from the start as a distinct scientific field alongside the large‐scale nuclear physics projects primarily because the mainstream electronic industry did not address specific requirements and regulations. Examples include, for instance, the exceptional purity requirement for detector materials, more demanding electronic component performance specifications, reliability, the operation in extreme environments, specially tailored design tools and manufacture processes, etc. The detachment of the discipline has been from the start and remains to this time. No single general‐purpose foundry will accept designs involving the manufacture of a system‐on‐chip that, e.g. combines the ultra‐shallow blocking junction drift detectors and associated readout/processing electronics on the high purity semiconductor wafer. This type of work requires specialized equipment and appropriately trained personnel. Therefore, it is advisable for engineers and scientists entering the field to acquire interdisciplinary skills in addition to those attributed normally to mainstream electronics. These skills are necessary for negotiations with foundry staff, sub‐contractors, application specialists. The most critical technologies are normally being developed in‐house. Fig. p1 gives a summary of competencies associated with the Radiation Measurement Instrumentation, a specific branch of Nuclear Electronics, which will be dealt with in this manuscript.

Figure p1 The definition of Nuclear Electronics as a scientific, technical, and technological discipline.

The cryogenic solid‐state detectors used for high precision radiation measurements can be classified into two groups:

Ultra‐Low Temperature (ULT) Detectors operating in a sub‐1 K range (

Chapters 2

,

3

);

Semiconductor‐based Drift Chambers or CCDs (Charge Coupled Devices) moderately cooled below room temperature, normally above a liquid nitrogen 77K (

Chapter 4

).

The sub‐1 K superconducting detectors tend to serve the most challenging applications in terms of the required energy resolution, whereas less precise semiconductor counterparts are often referred to as the “working horse” of the Spectroscopic Industries. Many publications perceive these technologies as competitive. In reality, they co‐exist complementarily. The state‐of‐art Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) with an area up to 200 mm2, energy resolution of 125 eV (MnKα), and count rate capability above 106 counts per second (cps) [1,2] are natural candidates for the wide‐angle cameras. These cameras collect broad data from large areas of, for instance, sky or specimens, whereas the narrow‐angle cameras built on the base of ULT detectors extend the capabilities of SDDs by zooming into points of particular interest. The best superconducting detectors have a smaller focal plane coverage but demonstrated an energy resolution down to (2 to 5) eV at MnKα for a few hundred cps per pixel [3]. Fig. p2 illustrates the complementarity of these two sensing technologies (reproduced from [8] with permission of Springer Nature, license 5125391328507). It shows a combined X‐ray energy spectrum diagram measured on a copper sample with a 2 MeV proton excitation beam with SDD and TES‐based spectrometers. The arrangement for this Particle Induced X‐ray Emission (PIXE) experiment is described in the manuscript (see Fig. 8.4.1 and relater text). The benefit from using the integrated SDD/TES instrument in terms of improvement in the resolving power and speed is evident. We continuously get new confirmations to it from the latest comparative studies, e.g. the XANES (near edge structure) analysis of dilute samples and trace elements described in [9].

Figure p2 The combined Cu‐sample X‐ray spectra exited with 2 MeV proton beam and measured with TES and SDD detectors. Inset shows the same data in logarithmic scale to reveal details in the resolving power (reproduced from [8] with permission of Springer Nature, license 5125391328507).

Due to the compatibility of semiconductor and superconductor technologies, it felt reasonable to add a new Chapter 4 on SDDs in this second edition. This should give a more balanced overview of the entire field. Besides, modern semiconductor devices undoubtedly belong to the class of quantum cryogenic devices by definition for at least two reasons:

in semiconductor technology with continuously reducing features and sharp interfaces, the quantum models hierarchy (or importance of quantum corrections to semi‐classical models) is increasing

[4]

,

Silicon is readily available in the highly purified crystalline form with a resistivity up to 50 kΩ m. Such high resistivity together with modern processing techniques reducing the density of unsaturated charge states at the Si‐SiO

2

interface down to just 5x10

8

cm

‐2

, 450 μm thick SDDs demonstrate good performance already at few tens degrees below 0°C. However, extending the energy range of measured nuclear radiation with the maximized quantum efficiency will require thicker Si wafers or materials with a higher atomic number Z. The quantum efficiency scales approximately as Z

5

. Germanium with Z=28 enables substantial improvement over silicon (Z=14) and has excellent prospects as a material of choice for further advancing the drift chamber performance specifications. It has a smaller energy gap of 0.66 eV (as opposite to 1.12 eV for Si) which obviously will improve the energy resolving power. Ge may well become the material of choice for the next stage of the large‐scale development in semiconductor detectors. Similar to silicon, the Czochralski technique for high purity crystalline Ge growth has already been developed

[5]

, the basic processing techniques and foundry services also exist. Ge Drift Detectors will require cooling to lower temperatures down to at least 90 K. However, SEM compatible single‐stage/low vibration pulse tube coolers, used with the bulk Lithium Compensated Si, can easily be recycled for this applications.

Nuclear Electronics, as a scientific discipline, is not limited to just designing and performance verification of primary sensors. It also involves other systemization topics such as equivalent circuits modelling the signal formation and noise sources, low noise readout preamplifiers, multiplexing the large format sensor arrays, the optimum filtration maximizing the signal‐to‐noise ratio, signal processing/recognition in analogue and digital forms, time measurement and triggering, data acquisition, etc, as listed in Fig. p1. These topics will be presented in the subsequent Chapters 5 to 7.

Chapter 8 is dedicated to the systematization issues of the nuclear radiation spectrometers with emphasis on the ultra‐low temperature design. It will include topics like cooling techniques, magnetic shielding, front‐end assembly packaging, collimation, windowing, the definition of the solid angle, X‐ray optics, and specifics of microwave connectivity of the ULT/room temperature interface.

Up to now the fundamental research in particle physics and astrophysics has driven progress in Radiation Detection. Presently, however, we observe a definite shift of interest towards industrial applications (nano‐material science, biochemistry, medical imaging, environmental control, security, etc.). Among all types of low‐temperature superconducting detectors, the Superconducting Tunnel Junctions (STJs) and the Transition Edge Sensor (TES) quantum calorimeters are the closest candidates for commercialization. Systems on their base have already demonstrated a sub 10 eV energy resolution FWHM (the full width at the half maximum) for 5.9 keV X‐ray detection and up to 5 to 10 kcps counting speed. The speed can be further improved by configuring them in a multiplexed architecture. The progress in the device multiplexability was the most remarkable over the period between the two editions. The microwave frequency multiplexing of single‐junction quantum interferometers (μMUX) enables hundreds of detectors to be bundled to a single coaxial cable with a bandwidth of 4 to 6 GHz provided by modern low noise HEMT preamps. The results of the new technology demonstrations were so impressive that it is now being considered for building a space telescope with a hundred of thousands (yes 100,000!) pixel array.

The overall performance of detector arrays is getting better as the technology becomes more mature [3]. The cryo‐spectrometers have already gone through rigorous application tests. W. Doriese et al reported about twelve TES based detector systems installed in large X‐ray laser facilities for the synchrotron‐based absorption/ emission spectroscopy and energy‐resolved scattering; accelerator‐based spectroscopy of hadronic atoms and particle‐induced‐emission spectroscopy; laboratory‐based time‐resolved absorption and emission spectroscopy with a tabletop, broadband source; and laboratory‐based metrology of X‐ray‐emission lines [3]. M. Frank, et al, R. Wenzel et al have published results on the STJ performance as ion detectors in the energy dispersive Matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization Time‐Of‐Flight mass spectrometry (Maldi‐TOF) in [6] and [7], respectively. A nearly 100% efficiency response to the detection of large mass particles has been verified up to 1.5 MDa. The second generation of instruments will be upgraded with large‐format arrays of cryogenic detectors implementing a wide (4‐6 GHz) bandwidth microwave frequency‐division multiplexors. These systems should deliver unprecedentedly high‐quality spectra enabling new application areas for the MALDI‐TOF, in particular, the critically important fields like viral and bacterial research where these systems can generate analytical results with much‐improved productivity.

Laboratory tests confirmed the capability of superconducting detectors installed in all mentioned facilities to maintain their high‐performance potential and deliver exceptional quality information, which cannot be obtained with any other techniques. Chapter 9 will be dedicated to the discussion of Low‐Temperature Energy Dispersive and Maldi‐TOF Spectrometers as well as outline some other potentially very interesting applications.

Another issue usually perceived as problematic is that the superconducting technology needs liquid cryogens to provide the sub 1K temperature environment. The cryogenic part is associated with the higher maintenance cost, the necessity for trained cryogenic personnel, boiling liquid and evaporating gas interfering with technological processes. The “dry” pulse‐tube coolers, now commercially available, solved the problem by eliminating cryogen liquids at all or by condensing and re‐circulating it on site. The cryogenics is fully computer‐controlled. From the user's perspective, the ULT instruments are indistinguishable from their room temperature counterparts. This encourages the industries to gradually accept new superconducting detector technology and benefit from its extended capabilities.

To conclude the preface, one can predict with optimism that a new generation of exceptionally talented scientists, engineers, and post‐graduate students will be joining this challenging, but exciting scientific field either as system developers or application/maintenance specialists. The major goal of this book is to bring all aspirants up to speed in the subject as quickly and painlessly as possible. Particular effort was undertaken to make the overview possibly complete and self‐contained so that it could serve as a single information source on all important fundamental issues of Nuclear Electronics with Cryogenic Quantum Detectors. Certainly, it was not feasible in practice to accommodate all developments in the field or go into a great depth of each particular development in one book. Whereas the dedicated conference review manuscripts summarise often the latest trends in the primary sensors, the system integration issues are usually scattered in multiple papers or have not been addressed properly at all. An effort has been made to balance it. All publically available major materials on the topic were analyzed, systemized, and existing gaps were filled using my personal technical experience or through communications with colleagues. I would like to thank all of them heartily.

References

1

G. Lutz. Silicon drift and pixel devices for X‐ray imaging and spectroscopy.

Journal of Synchrotron Radiation

13

, 99 (2006).

2

E. Kenik. Evaluating the performance of a commercial Silicon Drift Detector for X‐ray microanalysis.

Microscopy Today

May, 40 (2011).

3

W. Doriese, P. Abbamonte, B. Alpert, et al. A practical superconducting microcalorimeter X‐ray spectrometer for beamline and laboratory science.

Review of Scientific Instruments

88

, 053108 (2017).

4

A. Juengel.

Transport Equations for Semiconductors

. Springer, 2009.

5

G. Wang, H. Mei, D.Mei, Y.Guan, G. Yang. High purity crystal growth.

Journal of Physics

606

, 012012 (2015).

6

M. Frank, S. Labov, G Westmacott, H. Benner. Energy‐sensitive cryogenic detectors for high‐mass biomolecule mass spectrometry.

Mass Spectrometry Reviews

18

, 155 (1999).

7

R. Wenzel, U. Matter, L. Schultheis, R. Zenobi. Analysis of megadalton ion using cryodetection MALDI time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry.

Anal. Chem.

77

, 4329 (2005).

8

M. Palosaari, K. Kinnunen, J. Julin, et.al. TES for particle induced X‐ray emission measurements.

J. Low Temp. Phys.

176

, 285 (2014).

9

S. Yamada, Y. Ichinoe, H. Tatsuno, et.al. Broadband high energy resolution hard X‐ray spectroscopy using TES at Spring‐8.

Rev. Sci.Instrum.

92

, 013103 (2021).

Preface to the First Edition

The nuclear electronics is often associated primarily with the fundamental research conducted in nuclear laboratories and astrophysics. Yet many would be quite surprised to find out an extent it directly affects our everyday life. The food safety, the security at airports, medical examinations, doping tests, forensic investigations and so on are all provided with the nuclear analytical instrumentation. The technological advance in the life science, biology, ecology, medicine, semiconductors, remote sensing and many others relay heavily upon the information which comes uniquely and, what is particularly important, non‐destructively from nuclear sensors. This information can be either a chemical composition of a material dealt with, or a crystal or atomic structure, or the thickness of individual layers in a multilayer formation of a complex shape, or the mass of molecules, or a DNA structure. The number of possible applications is wide and expanding rapidly almost on a daily basis. Besides, even in traditional areas of the research and development specialists need to observe smaller features, a lesser percentage of contaminations, etc., but, at the same time, scanning larger areas or volumes. Therefore, the nuclear electronics as a discipline must continuously evolve in its search for new detection methods or more elaborate processing techniques in order to deliver much needed systems with a better resolution, accuracy, reproducibility and the speed of operation.