Modeling phase-separated transition-edge sensors in SuperCDMS detectors

Abstract

The SuperCDMS experiment implements transition-edge sensors to measure athermal phonons produced by nuclear recoils in Ge crystals. We discuss a numerical simulation of these TES devices and a procedure for tuning the free model parameters to data, which reproduces superconducting-to-normal phase separation within a TES. This tuning provides insight into the behavior of the TESs, allows us to study the phase-separation length to optimize our detector design, and is integrated into a more complete simulation of the phonon and charge physics of SuperCDMS detectors.

13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A