Large Area Transition Edge Sensor X-ray Microcalorimeters for Diffuse X-ray Background Studies

We are developing transition edge sensor (TES) mirocalorimeters with large area (0.72 mm) absorbers to study the keV diffuse X-ray background. The goal is to develop a 2 cm array of 256 pixels for a sounding rocket payload. We present a pixel design which includes a Mo/Au bilayer TES coupled to a large (850 x 850 x 0.2 m) gold absorber. Our simulations indicate that such a design can achieve energy resolution as good as 1.6 eV FWHM in our target bandpass of 0.05-1 keV. Additionally, thermal modelling shows that for typical gold layers, the position-dependent variation of the pulse shape over the large area of the absorber is not expected to significantly degrade this energy resolution. An array of devices will be fabricated in late 2013 to test this design.