Electron-Phonon Coupling on the NbSi Transition Edge Sensors

Abstract: We have built an electron-phonon coupling model to describe the behavior of the NbxSi1-x transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers, fabricated by electron-beam coevaporation and photolithography techniques on a 2-inch silicon wafer. The resistance versus temperature curves of several sensors with different thickness are measured with different bias currents, ranging from 200 nA to 10 micro A, and the electron-phonon coupling coefficient and the electron-phonon thermal conductance are calculated herein. Our values are quite comparable with those in metallic TES samples of other groups using different measurement methods, while we are using the transition region of our TES sample to calculate the electron-phonon coupling interaction.