Development of Superconducting Microresonators for a Neutrino Mass Experiment

The determination of the neutrino mass is still an open issue in particle physics. The calorimetric measurement of the energy released in a nuclear beta decay allows to measure all the released energy, except the fraction carried away by the neutrino: a finite neutrino mass m \(_\upnu \) causes the energy spectrum to be truncated at Q  \(-\)  m \(_\upnu \) , where Q is the transition energy. The electron capture of \(^{163}\) Ho (Q \(\sim \) 2.5 keV) results to be an ideal decay. In order to achieve enough statistics, a large number of detectors ( \(\sim \) 10 \(^4\) ) is required. Superconducting microwave microresonators are detectors suitable for large-scale multiplexed frequency domain readout, with theoretical energy and time resolution of \(\sim \) eV and \(\sim \!\upmu \) s. Our aim is to develop arrays of microresonator detectors applicable to the calorimetric measurement of the energy spectra of \(^{163}\) Ho. Currently, a study aimed to the selection of the best design and material for the detectors is in progress. In this contribution, a comparison between the measurements (critical temperature, gap parameter, quasiparticle recombination time and X-ray energy spectra) made with stoichiometric, sub-stoichiometric TiN and Ti/TiN multilayer films are presented.     

Cryogenic Wide-Area Light Detectors for Neutrino and Dark Matter Searches

Large-mass arrays of bolometers proved to be good detectors for neutrinoless double beta decay (0 \(\nu \) DBD) and dark matter searches. CUORE and LUCIFER are bolometric 0 \(\nu \) DBD experiments that will start to take data in 2015 at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The sensitivity of CUORE could be increased by removing the background due to \(\alpha \) particles, by detecting the small amount of ?erenkov light ( \(\sim \) 100 eV) emitted by the \(\beta \) s’ signal and not by \(\alpha \) s. LUCIFER could be extended to detect also dark matter, provided that the background from \(\beta \) / \(\gamma \) particles ( \(\sim \) 100 eV of scintillation light) is discriminated from nuclear recoils of about 10 keV energy (no light). We have recently started to develop light detectors for CUORE, LUCIFER and similar bolometric experiments. The aim is to obtain detectors with an active area of \(5\times 5~\mathrm{cm}^2\) (the face of bolometric crystals), operating at 10 mK, and with an energy resolution at the baseline below 20 eV RMS. We have chosen to develop phonon-mediated detectors with KID sensors. We are currently testing the first prototypes.     

Fusion Diagrams in the \mathrm{BiBO}_{3}–\mathrm{YbBO}_{3} and \mathrm{Bi}_{4}\mathrm{B}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{9}–\mathrm{YbBO}_{3} Systems

A calculation model of the Gibbs energy of ternary oxide compounds from the binary components was used. Thermodynamic properties of \(\mathrm{Yb}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{3}\) – \(\mathrm{Bi}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{3}\) – \(\mathrm{B}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{3}\) ternary systems in the condensed state were calculated. Thermodynamic data of binary and ternary compounds were used to determine the stable sections. The probability of reactions between the corresponding components in the \(\mathrm{Yb}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{3}\) – \(\mathrm{Bi}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{3}\) – \(\mathrm{B}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{3}\) system was estimated. Fusibility diagrams of systems \(\mathrm{BiBO}_{3}\) – \(\mathrm{YbBO}_{3}\) and \(\mathrm{Bi}_{4} \mathrm{B}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{9}\) – \(\mathrm{YbBO}_{3}\) were studied by physical–chemical analysis. The isothermal section of the phase diagram of \(\mathrm{Yb}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{3}\) – \(\mathrm{Bi}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{3}\) – \(\mathrm{B}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{3}\) at 298 K is built, as well as the projection of the liquid surface of \(\mathrm{BiBO}_{3}\) – \(\mathrm{B}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{3}\) – \(\mathrm{YbBO}_{3}\) .     

Development of MMC Gamma Detectors for Nuclear Analysis

Non-destructive assay (NDA) of nuclear materials would benefit from gamma detectors with improved energy resolution in cases where line overlap in current Ge detectors limits NDA accuracy. We are developing metallic magnetic calorimeter gamma-detectors for this purpose by electroplating \(\sim \) 150  \(\upmu \) m thick Au absorbers into microfabricated molds on top of Au:Er sensors. Initial tests under non-optimized conditions show an energy resolution of \(\sim \) 200 eV FWHM at 60 keV. Monte Carlo simulations illustrate that this resolution is starting to be sufficient for direct detection of \(^{242}\) Pu in plutonium separated from spent nuclear fuel.     

Primitive elements with prescribed trace

Let \(q\) be a power of a prime number \(p\) . Let \(n\) be a positive integer. Let \(\mathbb {F}_{q^n}\) denote a finite field with \(q^n\) elements. In this paper, we consider the existence of the some specific elements in the finite field \(\mathbb {F}_{q^n}\) . We get that when \(n\ge 29\) , there are elements \(\xi \in \mathbb {F}_{q^n}\) such that \(\xi +\xi ^{-1}\) is a primitive element of \(\mathbb {F}_{q^n}\) , and \(\mathrm{Tr}(\xi ) = a, \mathrm{Tr}(\xi ^{-1}) = b\) for any pair of prescribed \(a, b \in \mathbb {F}_q^*\) .     

Fabrication of Nb/Al Superconducting Tunnel Junction Using Ozone Gas

An ozone (O \(_{3})\) oxidation process was introduced for Nb/Al-based superconducting tunnel junctions (STJs) in order to form defect-free tunnel barriers at high critical current and to improve the energy resolution ( \(\Delta E\) ) for X-rays. The dependence of critical current ( \(J_\mathrm{C})\) and leak current ( \(I_\mathrm{leak})\) on the O \(_{3}\) exposure was measured to optimize the oxidation condition. The 50-square- \(\upmu \) m STJs produced by the O \(_{3}\) oxidation process exhibited an extremely small \(I_\mathrm{leak}\) of less than 50 pA. As expected, the lower or shorter the O \(_{3}\) exposure, the higher \(J_\mathrm{C}\) and the smaller the normal resistance ( \(R_\mathrm{N})\) . However, the maximum \(J_\mathrm{C}\) was 8 A/cm \(^{2}\) at an O \(_{3}\) exposure of 0.72 Pa min, which is much smaller than those of STJs with the conventional O \(_{2}\) oxidation process. It is expected that the high \(J_\mathrm{C}\) of 1,000 A/cm \(^{2}\) , at which a 9-eV-energy resolution for 277 eV photons is predicted, can be reached by an O \(_{3}\) exposure of 3.5 \(\times \) 10 \(^{-4}\) Pa min.     

Toward a Detector/Readout Architecture for the Background-Limited Far-IR/Submm Spectrograph (BLISS)

We have built and tested 32-element linear arrays of absorber-coupled transition-edge sensors (TESs) read out with a time-division SQUID multiplexer. This detector/readout architecture is designed for the background-limited far-IR/submm spectrograph (BLISS) which is a broadband (35–433  \(\upmu \) m), grating spectrometer consisting of six wavebands each with a modest resolution of R \(\sim \) 700. Since BLISS requires the effective noise equivalent power (NEP) of the TESs to equal 1  \(\times \)  10 \(^{-19}\)  W/Hz \(^{1/2}\) , our detectors consist of very long (1–2 mm), narrow (0.4 \(\upmu \) m), and thin (0.25 \(\upmu \) m) Si \(_{x}\) N \(_{y}\) support beams that reduce the thermal conductance G between the substrate and the optical absorber. The thermistors of our lowest noise TESs consist of iridium with \(T_{c}=130\) mK. We have measured the electrical properties of arrays of these Ir TESs with various meander and straight support beams and absorber shapes and found that G is \(\sim \) 30 fW/K (meander) and \(\sim \) 110 fW/K (straight), the electrical NEP is 2–3  \(\times \)  10 \(^{-19}\) W/Hz \(^{1/2}\) (meander and straight), and the response time \(\tau \) is 10–30 ms (meander) and 2–5 ms (straight). To reduce spurious or “dark” power from heating the arrays, we mounted the arrays into light-tight niobium boxes and added custom L/R and L/C low-pass chip filters into these boxes to intercept dark power from the bias and readout circuit. We found the average dark power equals 1.3 and 4.6 fW for the boxes with L/R and L/C chip filters, respectively. We have built arrays with \(T_{c}= 70\)  mK using molybdenum/copper bilayers and are working to lower the dark power by an order of magnitude so we can demonstrate NEP \(~=~1~\times \)  10 \(^{-19}\)  W/Hz \(^{1/2}\) with these arrays. PACS numbers: 85.25.Pb; 95.85.Gn; 95.85.Fm; 63.22. \(+\) m     

Exploring Solute–Solvent Interactions of \alpha -Amino Acids in Aqueous [\mathrm{EPyBF}_{4}] Arrangements by Volumetric,Viscometric, Refractometric,and Acoustic Approach

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of molecular interaction prevailing in glycine, l-alanine, l-valine, and aqueous solution of ionic liquid (IL) [1-ethylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate ( \(\mathrm{EPyBF}_{4})\) ] have been investigated by thermophysical properties. The apparent molar volume ( \(\phi _{V}\) ), viscosity \(B\) -coefficient, molal refraction ( \(R_{\mathrm{M}}\) ), and adiabatic compressibility ( \(\phi _{ K} )\) of glycine, l-alanine, and l-valine have been studied in 0.001 mol \({\cdot }\, \mathrm{dm}^{-3}\) , 0.003 mol \({\cdot }\, \mathrm{dm}^{-3}\) , and 0.005 mol  \({\cdot } \,\mathrm{dm}^{-3}\) aqueous 1-ethylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate [ \(\mathrm{EPyBF}_{4}\) ] solutions at 298.15 K from the values of densities \((\rho )\) , viscosities ( \(\eta \) ), refractive index ( \(n_{\mathrm{D}})\) , and speed of sound \((u)\) , respectively. The extent of interaction, i.e., the solute–solvent interaction is expressed in terms of the limiting apparent molar volume ( \(\phi _{V}^0 )\) , viscosity \(B\) -coefficient, and limiting apparent molar adiabatic compressibility ( \(\phi _{K}^0)\) . The limiting apparent molar volumes ( \(\phi _{V}^0 )\) , experimental slopes ( \(S_{V}^*)\) derived from the Masson equation, and viscosity \(A\) - and \(B\) -coefficients using the Jones–Dole equation have been interpreted in terms of ion–ion and ion–solvent interactions, respectively. Molal refractions ( \(R_{\mathrm{M}})\) have been calculated with the help of the Lorentz–Lorenz equation. The role of the solvent (aqueous IL solution) and the contribution of solute–solute and solute–solvent interactions to the solution complexes have also been analyzed through the derived properties.     

Thermal Stability of \beta -PtO_2 Investigated by Simultaneous Thermal Analysis and Its Influence on Platinum Resistance Thermometry

We present thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetric studies of PtO \(_2\) powders measured in different atmospheres. In synthetic air a mass loss of 11.4 % is found at the decomposition temperature \(T_\mathrm {D}\)  = 595  \(^{\circ }\hbox {C}\) which can be attributed to the reduction of PtO \(_2\) . In a helium atmosphere the mass loss is 12.0 % and is found at 490  \(^{\circ }\hbox {C}\) . Subsequent heating in air leads to another oxidation process above \(T_\mathrm {D}\) and a reduction at 800  \(^{\circ }\hbox {C}\) . The second oxidation and reduction process is strongly suppressed when the powder is heated in He. The remaining mass above \(T_\mathrm {D}\) does not comply with a reduction path PtO \(_2 \rightarrow \) PtO \(\rightarrow \) Pt. Differential scanning calorimetry shows an endothermic reaction at \(T_\mathrm {D}\) in synthetic air as well as in helium which corresponds with the mass loss. These measurements imply that the powder can be assigned to be \(\beta \) -PtO \(_2\) . Furthermore, catalytic activity of the PtO \(_2\) powder is evidenced by mass spectrometry to be present below 460  \(^{\circ }\hbox {C}\) . Finally, the impact of these findings on the stability of platinum resistance thermometers is discussed.     

Temperature Coefficients of the Refractive Index for Complex Hydrocarbon Mixtures

Temperature coefficients of the refractive index ( \(\mathrm{d}n/\mathrm{d}T\) ) in the \(25\,^{\circ }\mathrm{C}\) to \(35\,^{\circ }\mathrm{C}\) temperature interval for hydrocarbon mixtures containing as many as 14 compounds were investigated in this work. The measured \(-\mathrm{d}n/\mathrm{d}T\) of the mixtures were compared with calculations based on the values for each compound and their concentrations. Differences of about 1 % between measured and calculated values were observed for all mixtures. The additivity of \(-\mathrm{d}n/\mathrm{d}T\) for these hydrocarbons enables preparation of surrogate fuels that are formulated to have properties like those of specific diesel fuels.     

Impact of Associated Gases on Equilibrium and Transport Properties of a \mathrm{CO}_{2} Stream: Molecular Simulation and Experimental Studies

During the various carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) stages, an accurate knowledge of thermodynamic properties of \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) streams is required for the correct sizing of plant units. The injected \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) streams are not pure and often contain small amounts of associated gaseous components such as \(\mathrm{O}_{2}, \mathrm{N}_{2}\) , \(\mathrm{SO}_{x}, \mathrm{NO}_{x}\) , noble gases, etc. In this work, the thermodynamic behavior and transport properties of some \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) -rich mixtures have been investigated using both experimental approaches and molecular simulation techniques such as Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations. Using force fields available in the literature, we have validated the capability of molecular simulation techniques in predicting properties for pure compounds, binary mixtures, as well as multicomponent mixtures. These validations were performed on the basis of experimental data taken from the literature and the acquisition of new experimental data. As experimental data and simulation results were in good agreement, we proposed the use of simulation techniques to generate new pseudo-experimental data and to study the impact of associated gases on the properties of \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) streams. For instance, for a mixture containing 92.0 mol% of \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) , 4.0 mol% of \(\mathrm{O}_{2}\) , 3.7 mol% of Ar, and 0.3 mol% of \(\mathrm{N}_{2}\) , we have shown that the presence of associated gases leads to a decrease of 14 % and 21 % of the dense phase density and viscosity, respectively, as compared to pure \(\mathrm{CO}_{2}\) properties.     

Comparing Transition-Edge Sensor Response Times in a Modified Contact Scheme with Different Support Beams

We present measurements of the thermal conductance, G, and effective time constants, \(\tau \) , of three transition-edge sensors (TESs) populated in arrays operated from 80–87 mK with T \(_\mathrm{C}\)   \(\sim \)  120 mK. Our TES arrays include several variations of thermal architecture enabling determination of the architecture that demonstrates the minimum noise equivalent power, the lowest \(\tau \) , and the trade-offs among designs. The three TESs we report here have identical Mo/Cu bilayer thermistors and wiring structures, while the thermal architectures are: (1) a TES with straight support beams of 1 mm length, (2) a TES with meander support beams of total length 2 mm and with two phonon-filter blocks per beam, and (3) a TES with meander support beams of total length 2 mm and with six phonon-filter blocks per beam. Our wiring scheme aims to lower the thermistor normal state resistance R \(_{N}\) and increase the sharpness of the transition \(\alpha =\)  dlogR/dlogT at the transition temperature T \(_\mathrm{C}\) . We find an upper limit of \(\alpha \) given by ( \(25\pm 10\) ), and G values of 200 fW/K for (1), 15 fW/K for (2), and 10 fW/K for (3). The value of \(\alpha \) can be improved by slightly increasing the length of our thermistors.     

An extension of the (strong) primitive normal basis theorem

An extension of the primitive normal basis theorem and its strong version is proved. Namely, we show that for nearly all \(A = {\small \left( \begin{array}{cc} a&{}b \\ c&{}d \end{array} \right) } \in \mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb {F}_{q})\) , there exists some \(x\in \mathbb {F}_{q^m}\) such that both \(x\) and \((-dx+b)/(cx-a)\) are simultaneously primitive elements of \(\mathbb {F}_{q^m}\) and produce a normal basis of \(\mathbb {F}_{q^m}\) over \(\mathbb {F}_q\) , granted that \(q\) and \(m\) are large enough.     

Containerless Measurements of Density and Viscosity for a Cu_{48}Zr_{52} Liquid

The densities of solid and liquid Cu \(_{48}\) Zr \(_{52}\) and the viscosity of the liquid were measured in a containerless electrostatic levitation system using optical techniques. The measured density of the liquid at the liquidus temperature (1223 K) is (7.02 \(\pm \) 0.01) g \(\cdot \) cm \(^{-3}\) and the density of the solid extrapolated to that temperature is (7.15 \(\pm \) 0.01) g \(\cdot \) cm \(^{-3}\) . The thermal expansion coefficients measured at 1223 K are (6.4 \(\pm \) 0.1) \(\,\times \,10^{-5}\) K \(^{-1}\) in the liquid phase and (3.5 \(\pm \) 0.3) \(\,\times \,10^{-5}\) K \(^{-1}\) in the solid phase. The viscosity of the liquid, measured with the oscillating drop technique, is of the form \(A\exp \left[ \left( {{E}_{0}}+{{E}_{1}}\left( 1/T-1/{{T}_{0}} \right) \right) \times \left( 1/T-1/{{T}_{0}} \right) \right] \) , where \({{T}_{0}}=1223\) K, \(A= (0.0254 \pm 0.0004)\) Pa \(\cdot \) s, \({{E}_{0}}\) =  (8.43 \(\pm \) 0.26) \(\,\times \,10^3\) K and \({{E}_{1}}\) =  (1.7 \(\pm \) 0.2) \(\,\times 10^7\) K \(^{2}\) .     

High-Frequency Shear Viscosity of Low-Viscosity Liquids

A thickness shear quartz resonator technique is described to measure the shear viscosity of low-viscosity liquids in the frequency range from 6 MHz to 130 MHz. Examples of shear-viscosity spectra in that frequency range are presented to show that various molecular processes are accompanied by shear-viscosity relaxation. Among these processes are conformational variations of alkyl chains, with relaxation times \(\tau _{\eta }\) of about 0.3 ns for \(n\) -pentadecane and \(n\) -hexadecane at 25  \(^{\circ }\) C. These variations can be well represented in terms of a torsional oscillator model. Also featured briefly are shear-viscosity relaxations associated with fluctuations of hydrogen-bonded clusters in alcohols, for which \(\tau _{\eta }\) values between 0.3 ns ( \(n\) -hexanol) and 1.5 ns ( \(n\) -dodecanol) have been found at 25  \(^{\circ }\) C. In addition, the special suitability of high-frequency shear-viscosity spectroscopy to the study of critically demixing mixtures is demonstrated by some illustrative examples. Due to slowing, critical fluctuations do not contribute to the shear viscosity at sufficiently high frequencies of measurements so that the non-critical background viscosity \(\eta _\mathrm{bg}\) of critical systems can be directly determined from high-frequency shear-viscosity spectroscopy. Relaxations in \(\eta _\mathrm{bg}\) appear also in the shear-viscosity spectra with, for example, \(\tau _{\eta }\,\approx \) 2 ns for the critical triethylamine–water binary mixture at temperatures between 10  \(^{\circ }\) C and 18  \(^{\circ }\) C. Such relaxations noticeably influence the relaxation rate of order parameter fluctuations. They may be also the reason for the need of a special mesoscopic viscosity when mutual diffusion coefficients of critical polymer solutions are discussed in terms of mode-coupling theory.     

Four-Channel Current-Biased Kinetic Inductance Detectors Using MgB_2 Nanowires for Sensing Pulsed Laser Irradiation

We recently proposed the idea of a novel sort of superconducting detector, i.e., a current-biased kinetic inductance detector (CB-KID). This detector is different from a current-biased transition edge detector studied previously, and is able to sense a change in kinetic inductance \(L_k\) given by \(L_{k} = \Lambda _{k}l/S = m_{s}l/n_{s}{q_{s}}^{2}S\) ( \(\Lambda _{k}\) ; kinetic inductivity, \(m_s\) ; mass of Cooper pair, \(n_s\) ; density of Cooper pairs, \(q_s\) ; charge of Cooper pair, \(l\) ; length of device, \(S\) ; cross sectional area) under a constant dc bias current \(I_b\) . In the present work, we first extend this idea to construct a multi-channel CB-KIDs array made of 200-nm-thick MgB \(_2\) thin-film meanderline with 3- \(\upmu \) m thin wire. We succeeded in observing clear signals for imaging from the four-channel CB-KIDs at 4 K by irradiating focused pulsed laser. A scanning laser spot can be achieved by an XYZ piezo-driven stage and an optical fiber with an aspheric focused lens. We can see typical signals from all 4 channels at 4 K, and obtain the positional dependence of the signal as the contour in XY plane. Our CB-KIDs can be used as neutron detectors by utilizing energy released from a nuclear reaction between \(^{10}\) B and cold neutron.     

Development of Charge Sensitive Infrared Phototransistors for the Far-Infrared Wavelength

Ultra-highly-sensitive far-infrared detectors are developed for potential application to astronomy. The detectors exploit a novel mechanism called Charge Sensitive Infrared Phototransistors (CSIPs), in which an upper quantum well (QW) in GaAs/AlGaAs double QW structures is positively charged up by photo-excitation via inter-subband transition. This causes the conductance of the lower QW channel to increase. The device is effectively a phototransistor, in which the upper QW serves as a photo-sensitive gate to the source-drain channel provided by the lower QW. Resultant extraordinary high photoconductive gain makes CSIPs so sensitive as to detect single photons. CSIPs are well established in the mid-infrared ( \(\lambda \) = 12–20  \(\upmu \) m), achieving noise equivalent power around 1.9 \(\times \) 10 \(^{-19}\) W/Hz \(^{1/2}\) with a quantum efficiency of 7 %. CSIPs have been demonstrated to work in longer wavelengths up to 45  \(\upmu \) m, but the sensitivity was not as high as in the shorter wavelengths, probably due to lower quantum efficiency. Reported here is a remarkable improvement in the performance of longer wavelength CSIPs (45  \(\upmu \) m), achieved primarily by optimizing the doping concentration in the upper QW. This work indicates that longer wavelength CSIPs are promising detectors for the astronomical application.     

Measurement of the (p, \rho,T) Properties for Pure Hydrocarbons at Temperatures up to 600 K and Pressures up to 200 MPa

The data available for the thermodynamic properties of propane, \(n\) -butane, and isobutane at temperatures above 440 K are outdated and show significant discrepancies with each other. The ambiguity associated with these data could be limiting to the development of any understanding related to the effects of mixing of these substances with other materials such as \(\text{ CO}_{2}\) , ammonia, and non-flammable or lower-flammable HFC refrigerants. In this study, the (p, \(\rho \) , T) properties of propane, \(n\) -butane, and isobutane were measured at temperatures ranging from (360 to 600) K and pressures ranging from (50 to 200) MPa. Precise measurements were carried out using a metal-bellows variable volumometer with a thermostatted air bath. The expanded uncertainties \((k = 2)\) in the temperature, pressure, and density measurements were estimated to be \(<\) 5 mK, 0.02 MPa, and 0.88 kg  \(\cdot \)  m \(^{-3}\) ( \(T\le 423\)  K, \(p<100\)  MPa), 0.76 kg  \(\cdot \)   \(\text{ m}^{-3}\) ( \(T\le 423\)  K, \(p\ge 100\)  MPa), 0.76 kg  \(\cdot \)   \(\text{ m}^{-3}\) ( \(T>423\)  K, \(p < 100\)  MPa), and 2.94 kg  \(\cdot \)   \(\text{ m}^{-3}\) ( \(T>423\)  K, \(p \ge 100\)  MPa), respectively. The data obtained throughout this study were systematically compared with the calculated values derived from the available equations of state. These models agree well with the measured data at higher temperatures up to 600 K, demonstrating their suitability for an effective and precise examination of the mixing effects of potential alternative mixtures.     

Characterization of Mo/Au Transition-Edge Sensors with Different Geometric Configurations

Mo/Au transition-edge sensors exhibit weak-link behavior in the measured temperature, \(T\) and field, \(B\) dependence of the critical current \(I_\mathrm{{C}}(T,B)\) . This is a consequence of the longitudinal proximitization between the Nb electrical bias contacts and the bilayer. Understanding how weak-link superconductivity impacts the resistive transition and the detector energy resolution is of great interest. In this contribution we present studies of \(I_\mathrm{{C}}(T,B)\) for three devices that have different geometries of metallic depositions on top of the sensor used for noise mitigation and X-ray absorption. Results show that these features change the measured \(I_\mathrm{{C}}(T,B)\) compared to the previously seen measurements on devices without additional deposition layers. Measurements of the small signal transition parameters \(\alpha \) and \(\beta \) also reveal differences between designs that impact the measured response to X-rays and energy resolution.