2015/03/31 by Joseph W. Fowler, J. W. Fowler, B. K. Alpert +14 · 3 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Computational physics #Computer science #Detector #Energy (signal processing) #Exponential function #Mathematics #Measure (data warehouse) #Noise (video) #Optics #Particle Detector Development and Performance #Photon #Photon counting #Physics #Pulse (music) #Quantum mechanics #Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies #Spectral line #Spectroscopy #Superconducting and THz Device Technology #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0067-0049/219/2/35
This version exactly matches the submission to journal
arxiv created 2015/03/31 · openalex publication_date 2015/08/24 · arxiv updated 2017/02/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Transition Edge Sensor microcalorimeters can measure X-ray and gamma-ray energies with very high energy resolution and high photon-collection efficiency. For this technology to reach its full potential in future X-ray observatories, each sensor must be able to measure hundreds or even thousands of photon energies per second. Current "optimal filtering" approaches to achieve the best possible energy resolution work only for photons that are well isolated in time, a requirement which is in direct conflict with the need for high-rate measurements. We describe a new analysis procedure to allow fitting for the pulse height of all photons even in the presence of heavy pulse pile-up. In the limit of isolated pulses, the technique reduces to standard optimal filtering with long records. We employ reasonable approximations to the noise covariance function in order to render this procedure computationally viable even for very long data records. The technique is employed to analyze X-ray emission spectra at 600 eV and 6 keV at rates up to 250 counts s −1 in microcalorimeters having exponential signal decay times of approximately 1.2 ms.