<title>Superconductive tunnel junctions for x-ray spectroscopy</title>

Abstract

Superconductive tunneljunctions are under development as detectors for X-ray astronomy in the 0.5-10 keV energy range, because of their potentially high energy resolution (E < 10 eV) in combination with high detection efficiency. Especially absorber-junction combinations offer the prospect of high energy resolution detectors with a high detection efficiency and a reasonable ( 1 cm2) size. The proximity effect between the Nb absorber and the Al trapping layer plays a dominant role. A study of the proximity effect in Nb/Al/Al2 03/Al/Nb junctions with different Al-layer, the trapping layer, thicknesses is presented