First application of superconducting transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters to hadronic atom X-ray spectroscopy

Abstract

High-resolution pionic atom X-ray spectroscopy was performed with an X-ray spectrometer based on a 240 pixel array of superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters at the φM1 beam line of the Paul Scherrer Institute. X-rays emitted by pionic carbon via the 4f → 3d transition and the parallel 4d → 3p transition were observed with a full width at half maximum energy resolution of 6.8 eV at 6.4 keV. The measured X-ray energies are consistent with calculated electromagnetic values which considered the strong interaction effect assessed via the Seki-Masutani potential for the 3p energy level, and favor the electronic population of two filled 1s electrons in the K-shell. Absolute energy calibration with an uncertainty of 0.1 eV was demonstrated under a high-rate hadron beam condition of 1.45 MHz. This is the first application of a TES spectrometer to hadronic atom X-ray spectroscopy and is an important milestone towards next-generation high-resolution kaonic atom X-ray spectroscopy.