PHONON-MEDIATED PARTICLE DETECTORS - PHYSICS AND MATERIALS

This review starts with a short introduction on the physical motivations for a new class of elementary particle detectors, known as bolometers, in which the detection is mediated by the production of phonons in a dielectric or superconductive material. Successively, the basic principles of these devices are exposed. In the next section the thermalization dynamics of the energy released in the absorber is analysed; the physics of the most common phonon sensors, doped semiconductors working in the variable range hopping conduction regime, is then discussed in depth. The last section is an outlook on the most important experimental results obtained with bolometers. Special attention is devoted to the materials (and to the related physical implications) chosen to realize the energy absorbers of the detectors.