Connecting undergraduate concepts to modern particle detector research: Magnetic superconducting transition-based single-particle detector.

In the undergraduate physics course, students learn about inductance, magnetic susceptibility, and ac circuits. These basic ideas from the undergraduate physics course can also be applicable in advanced research in detection techniques. We used these ideas in a cryogenic environment for the detection of particles and energy. In this cryogenic detector, a thin tin (Sn) disk is inductively coupled to a niobium (Nb) coil, and the superconducting to normal-state transition of the tin disk is monitored as a change in the inductance of the Nb-Sn inductor. When the tin disk changes its state from superconducting state to normal state, its magnetic susceptibility changes, and hence the inductance of the Nb-Sn inductor changes. This prototype particle detector uses undergraduate physics concepts to calculate the impedance and it provides a good example of how fundamental concepts of electricity and magnetism course is being applied to modern detector research.