Detachable three-layer Au absorber microfabrication for low-temperature detectors

Low temperature detectors (LTDs) used for decay energy spectrometry (DES) can provide accurate and reliable decay data thanks to their high-energy resolution and a near 100% detection efficiency for the radiations of interest. However, it is essential to consider the source quality to mitigate spectral distortion due to the self-absorption of particle energy in the source deposited.

This work aimed to produce a replaceable 4π 3-layer gold absorber for DES in reusable metallic magnetic calorimeters, a class of LTDs. We present a novel 3-layer microfabrication process for a 1 mm diameter absorber with a total gold thickness ranging from 20 μm to 120 μm depending on the measured radionuclide (⁵⁵Fe or ²⁴¹Am). The absorber integrates a gold nanofoam in which the radionuclide is deposited by nanodrop deposition of a few tenths of μL of a radioactive solution. We fabricated a high quality gold nanofoam layer with controllable porosity through a dealloying process using wet etching and integrating it on a thick electrodeposited gold layer. The fine study of the nanofoam microfabrication is performed using high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX).