Study of the delta-Al/Ag superconducting alloy for TES applications

Despite the general discard in using Al/Ag alloys as transition edge sensors (TES), primarily due to the persistent instability of these devices, further investigations were conducted on the metallic diffusion processes based on the phase diagram of these systems for periods of more than 9 months. The results demonstrated the formation of a stable superconducting inter-metallic alloy at the sample interface showing an HCP lattice corresponding to the delta-Al/Ag phase alloy. Furthermore, the transition temperature of the alloy depends on the material stoichoimetry and can vary from about 80 mK to more than 100 mK. In this paper, we suggest the R&D continuation of Al/Ag inter-metallic delta-phase as homogeneous stable films for TES applications. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.