A detector based on quasiparticle trapping into superconducting tunnel junctions

A new superconductive detector system in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay, coherent neutrino scattering, determination of the rest mass of the neutrino etc., employing quasiparticle trapping from a separate absorber into two superconducting tunnel junctions is investigated. The energy resolution for the 55Mn-Kα-energy (5.89keV) is 60eV (FWHM) and the position resolution was determined to be better than 5μm over a sensitive length of 450μm. A quasiparticle rejection efficiency of better than 99.6% was measured for a thick superconducting lead barrier between two superconducting tin absorbers. (R.P.) 20 refs.; 4 figs