A superconducting tunneling junction (STJ) detector for soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy at 50 mK

Soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is an important technique at synchrotrons nowadays that allows to investigate electronic and magnetic properties in an element specific way. The investigation of non-conductive, soft organic or buried materials can't be carried out in total electron yield. In these cases an efficient fluorescence detector is needed to perform XAS measurements in partial fluorescence yield (PFY). The STJ detector is capable of count rates as high as 10 kcps per 100 μm² pixel size with an energy resolution of approximately 50 eV for 1.5 keV photons. The STJ is furthermore integrated into a 50 mK cryostat for XAS measurements at the P04 beamline at Petra III, DESY. We will present first measurements on a model system.