Transition-edge sensors (TES) and their superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) readouts are extremely sensitive to magnetic fields, and need to be well-shielded from changes in the ambient magnetic field. Primary magnetic field sources during flight are stray fields from the adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) and the Earth’s magnetic field. Other TES-based space missions, like Athena and Micro-X, only have to accommodate the f-number of the converging beam from their telescope mirror, which X-ray reflection physics limits to ~f/4. They can therefore utilize long narrow cones of nested mu-metal and niobium in front of their detectors to improve shielding effectiveness. With our 1 sr direct FOV, this would necessitate impractically large and long shields. Using COMSOL Multiphysics, we explore a design which features a Nb superconducting mesh closing the front of the shield close to the detectors and enabling a much more compact shield.
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Transition-edge sensors (TES) and their superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) readouts are extremely sensitive to magnetic fields, and need to be well-shielded from changes in the ambient magnetic field. Primary magnetic field sources during flight are stray fields from the adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) and the Earth’s magnetic field. Other TES-based space missions, like Athena and Micro-X, only have to accommodate the f-number of the converging beam from their telescope mirror, which X-ray reflection physics limits to ~f/4. They can therefore utilize long narrow cones of nested mu-metal and niobium in front of their detectors to improve shielding effectiveness. With our 1 sr direct FOV, this would necessitate impractically large and long shields. Using COMSOL Multiphysics, we explore a design which features a Nb superconducting mesh closing the front of the shield close to the detectors and enabling a much more compact shield.