- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

First direct search for light dark matter interactions in a transition-edge sensor

Christina Schwemmbauer1, Guy Daniel Hadas2, Yonit Hochberg2,3, Katharina-Sophie Isleif4, Friederike Januschek1, Benjamin V. Lehmann5, Axel Lindner1, Adriana E. Lita6, Manuel Meyer7 et al.

Gulden Othman4, Elmeri Rivasto7, and José Alejandro Rubiera Gimeno4

PDF

Phys. Rev. D 114, 012006 – Published 7 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zytz-n25v

Abstract

We propose the use of transition-edge sensor (TES) single-photon detectors as a simultaneous target and sensor for direct dark matter searches and report results from the first search of this kind. We perform a 489 h science run with a TES device optimized for the detection of 1064 nm photons, with a mass of ∼0.2  ng and an energy threshold of ∼0.3  eV, and set new limits on dark matter interactions with both electrons and nucleons for dark matter with mass below the MeV scale. With their excellent energy resolution, TESs enable search strategies that are complementary to recent results from superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors and kinetic inductance detectors. We show that next-generation TES arrays hold promise to probe new regions of light dark matter parameter space.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (100)

  1. J. L. Feng, Dark matter candidates from particle physics and methods of detection, Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 48, 495 (2010).
  2. G. Bertone and T. M. P. Tait, A new era in the search for dark matter, Nature (London) 562, 51 (2018).
  3. D. S. Akerib et al., Snowmass2021 cosmic frontier dark matter direct detection to the neutrino fog, in Snowmass 2021 (2022), arXiv:2203.08084.
  4. S. Navas et al. (Particle Data Group), Review of particle physics, Phys. Rev. D 110, 030001 (2024).
  5. L. Bergström, Nonbaryonic dark matter: Observational evidence and detection methods, Rep. Prog. Phys. 63, 793 (2000).
  6. P. Asadi et al., Early-Universe model building, arXiv:2203.06680.
  7. R. Essig, J. Mardon, and T. Volansky, Direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 85, 076007 (2012).
  8. P. W. Graham, D. E. Kaplan, S. Rajendran, and M. T. Walters, Semiconductor probes of light dark matter, Phys. Dark Universe 1, 32 (2012).
  9. R. Essig, M. Fernandez-Serra, J. Mardon, A. Soto, T. Volansky, and T.-T. Yu, Direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter with semiconductor targets, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2016) 046.
  10. Y. Hochberg, Y. Zhao, and K. M. Zurek, Superconducting detectors for superlight dark matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 011301 (2016).
  11. Y. Hochberg, M. Pyle, Y. Zhao, and K. M. Zurek, Detecting superlight dark matter with Fermi-degenerate materials, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2016) 057.
  12. Y. Hochberg, I. Charaev, S.-W. Nam, V. Verma, M. Colangelo, and K. K. Berggren, Detecting sub-GeV dark matter with superconducting nanowires, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 151802 (2019).
  13. Y. Hochberg, E. D. Kramer, N. Kurinsky, and B. V. Lehmann, Directional detection of light dark matter in superconductors, Phys. Rev. D 107, 076015 (2023).
  14. Y. Hochberg, B. V. Lehmann, I. Charaev, J. Chiles, M. Colangelo, S. W. Nam, and K. K. Berggren, New constraints on dark matter from superconducting nanowires, Phys. Rev. D 106, 112005 (2022).
  15. S. Derenzo, R. Essig, A. Massari, A. Soto, and T.-T. Yu, Direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter with scintillating targets, Phys. Rev. D 96, 016026 (2017).
  16. Y. Hochberg, Y. Kahn, M. Lisanti, C. G. Tully, and K. M. Zurek, Directional detection of dark matter with two-dimensional targets, Phys. Lett. B 772, 239 (2017).
  17. Y. Hochberg, Y. Kahn, M. Lisanti, K. M. Zurek, A. G. Grushin, R. Ilan, S. M. Griffin, Z.-F. Liu, S. F. Weber, and J. B. Neaton, Detection of sub-MeV dark matter with three-dimensional Dirac materials, Phys. Rev. D 97, 015004 (2018).
  18. G. Cavoto, F. Luchetta, and A. Polosa, Sub-GeV dark matter detection with electron recoils in carbon nanotubes, Phys. Lett. B 776, 338 (2018).
  19. N. A. Kurinsky, T. C. Yu, Y. Hochberg, and B. Cabrera, Diamond detectors for direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 99, 123005 (2019).
  20. C. Blanco, J. Collar, Y. Kahn, and B. Lillard, Dark matter-electron scattering from aromatic organic targets, Phys. Rev. D 101, 056001 (2020).
  21. S. M. Griffin, Y. Hochberg, K. Inzani, N. Kurinsky, T. Lin, and T. C. Yu, SiC detectors for sub-GeV dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 103, 075002 (2021).
  22. A. Simchony et al., Diamond and SiC detectors for rare event searches, J. Low Temp. Phys. 216, 363 (2024).
  23. R. Essig et al., Snowmass2021 cosmic frontier: The landscape of low-threshold dark matter direct detection in the next decade, in Snowmass 2021 (2022), arXiv:2203.08297.
  24. A. Das, N. Kurinsky, and R. K. Leane, Dark matter induced power in quantum devices, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 121801 (2024).
  25. A. Das, N. Kurinsky, and R. K. Leane, Transmon qubit constraints on dark matter-nucleon scattering, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2024) 233.
  26. Y. Hochberg, T. Lin, and K. M. Zurek, Detecting ultralight bosonic dark matter via absorption in superconductors, Phys. Rev. D 94, 015019 (2016).
  27. L. Baudis et al. (QROCODILE Collaboration), A new bite into dark matter with the SNSPD-based QROCODILE experiment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 081002 (2025).
  28. J. Gao, Y. Hochberg, B. V. Lehmann, S. W. Nam, P. Szypryt, M. R. Vissers, and T. Xu, Detecting light dark matter with kinetic inductance detectors, arXiv:2403.19739.
  29. C. Schwemmbauer, Y. Hochberg, K.-S. Isleif, F. Januschek, B. V. Lehmann, A. Lindner, M. Meyer, G. Othman, and J. A. Rubiera Gimeno, Simulations for direct dark matter searches using ALPS II’s TES detection system, Proc. Sci. COSMICWISPers (2024) 055 [arXiv:2407.02954].
  30. C. Schwemmbauer et al., Direct dark matter searches using ALPS II’s TES detection system, Proc. Sci. EPS-HEP2023 (2024) 120.
  31. W. S. Holland et al., SCUBA-2: The 10000 pixel bolometer camera on the James Clerk Maxwell telescope, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 430, 2513 (2013).
  32. C. L. Chang et al., SPT-SZ: A Sunyaev-ZePdovich survey for galaxy clusters, in The Thirteenth International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors—LTD13, American Institute of Physics Conference Series Vol. 1185, edited by B. Young, B. Cabrera, and A. Miller (AIP, Melville, New York, USA, 2009), pp. 475–477.
  33. T. Gerrits, N. Thomas-Peter, J. C. Gates, A. E. Lita, B. J. Metcalf, B. Calkins, N. A. Tomlin, A. E. Fox, A. L. Linares, J. B. Spring, N. K. Langford, R. P. Mirin, P. G. R. Smith, I. A. Walmsley, and S. W. Nam, On-chip, photon-number-resolving, telecommunication-band detectors for scalable photonic information processing, Phys. Rev. A 84, 060301 (2011).
  34. J. Gascon, Dark matter direct detection searches, Proc. Sci. ICHEP2010 (2010) 539.
  35. M. F. Albakry et al. (SuperCDMS Collaboration), A strategy for low-mass dark matter searches with cryogenic detectors in the SuperCDMS SNOLAB facility, in Snowmass 2021 (2022), arXiv:2203.08463.
  36. C. L. Chang et al. (TESSERACT Collaboration), First limits on light dark matter interactions in a low threshold two channel athermal phonon detector from the TESSERACT collaboration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 161002 (2025).
  37. S. M. Griffin, G. D. Hadas, Y. Hochberg, K. Inzani, and B. V. Lehmann, Dark matter-electron detectors for dark matter-nucleon interactions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 141803 (2025).
  38. J. A. Rubiera Gimeno, F. Januschek, K.-S. Isleif, A. Lindner, M. Meyer, G. Othman, C. Schwemmbauer, and R. Shah, A TES system for ALPS II—status and prospects, Proc. Sci. EPS-HEP2023 (2024) 567.
  39. K. D. Irwin and G. C. Hilton, Transition-edge sensors, in Cryogenic Particle Detection, edited by C. Enss (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Germany, 2005), Vol. 99, p. 63.
  40. J. A. Rubiera Gimeno, Optimizing a transition edge sensor detector system for low flux infrared photon measurements at the ALPS II experiment, Ph.D. thesis, Hamburg U., Hamburg, 2024.
  41. N. Bastidon, The cryogenic photon detection system for the ALPS II experiment: Characterization, optimization and background rejection, Ph.D. thesis, Universität Hamburg, 2016.
  42. J. Dreyling-Eschweiler, N. Bastidon, B. Döbrich, D. Horns, F. Januschek, and A. Lindner, Characterization, 1064 nm photon signals and background events of a tungsten TES detector for the ALPS experiment, J. Mod. Opt. 62, 1132 (2015).
  43. A. E. Lita, B. Calkins, L. A. Pellouchoud, A. J. Miller, and S. Nam, Superconducting transition-edge sensors optimized for high-efficiency photon-number resolving detectors, in Advanced Photon Counting Techniques IV, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series Vol. 7681, edited by M. A. Itzler and J. C. Campbell (2010), p. 76810D.
  44. R. Shah, A TES detector for ALPS II: Characterising a cryogenic, low-background, low energy single photon detector, Ph.D. thesis, Mainz U., Mainz U., 2023.
  45. D. Drung, C. Abmann, J. Beyer, A. Kirste, M. Peters, F. Ruede, and T. Schurig, Highly sensitive and easy-to-use squid sensors, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 17, 699 (2007).
  46. M. Schmidt, M. von Helversen, M. López, F. Gericke, E. Schlottmann, T. Heindel, S. Kück, S. Reitzenstein, and J. Beyer, Photon-number-resolving transition-edge sensors for the metrology of quantum light sources, J. Low Temp. Phys. 193, 1243 (2018).
  47. R. Shah, K.-S. Isleif, F. Januschek, A. Lindner, and M. Schott, TES detector for ALPS II, Proc. Sci. EPS-HEP2021 (2022) 801 [arXiv:2110.10654].
  48. M. Meyer, K. Isleif, F. Januschek, A. Lindner, G. Othman, J. A. Rubiera Gimeno, C. Schwemmbauer, M. Schott, and R. Shah (ALPS Collaboration), A first application of machine and deep learning for background rejection in the ALPS II TES detector, Ann. Phys. (Berlin) 536, 2200545 (2024).
  49. L. Manenti et al., Dark counts in optical superconducting transition-edge sensors for rare-event searches, Phys. Rev. Appl. 22, 024051 (2024).
  50. J. A. Jay, An overview of macrobending and microbending of optical fibers, Corning, Inc. (2010), https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:17792593.
  51. J. A. Rubiera Gimeno, F. Januschek, A. Lindner, C. Schwemmbauer, K.-S. Isleif, M. Meyer, E. Rivasto, G. Othman, and R. Shah, Simulation and measurement of blackbody radiation background in a transition edge sensor, Phys. Rev. D 112, 032001 (2025).
  52. J. A. Rubiera Gimeno, K.-S. Isleif, F. Januschek, A. Lindner, M. Meyer, G. Othman, M. Schott, R. Shah, and L. Sohl, The TES detector of the ALPS II experiment, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 1046, 167588 (2023).
  53. Y. Hochberg, Y. Kahn, N. Kurinsky, B. V. Lehmann, T. C. Yu, and K. K. Berggren, Determining dark-matter–electron scattering rates from the dielectric function, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 151802 (2021).
  54. J. D. Lewin and P. F. Smith, Review of mathematics, numerical factors, and corrections for dark matter experiments based on elastic nuclear recoil, Astropart. Phys. 6, 87 (1996).
  55. R. Lasenby and A. Prabhu, Dark matter–electron scattering in materials: Sum rules and heterostructures, Phys. Rev. D 105, 095009 (2022).
  56. T. Trickle, Z. Zhang, K. M. Zurek, K. Inzani, and S. M. Griffin, Multi-channel direct detection of light dark matter: theoretical framework, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2020) 036.
  57. R. H. Helm, Inelastic and elastic scattering of 187-Mev electrons from selected Even-Even nuclei, Phys. Rev. 104, 1466 (1956).
  58. K. Hattori, T. Konno, Y. Miura, S. Takasu, and D. Fukuda, An optical transition-edge sensor with high energy resolution, Supercond. Sci. Technol. 35, 095002 (2022).
  59. L. Barak et al. (SENSEI Collaboration), SENSEI: Direct-detection results on sub-GeV dark matter from a new skipper-CCD, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 171802 (2020).
  60. D. Amaral et al. (SuperCDMS Collaboration), Constraints on low-mass, relic dark matter candidates from a surface-operated SuperCDMS single-charge sensitive detector, Phys. Rev. D 102, 091101 (2020).
  61. A. Aguilar-Arevalo et al. (DAMIC Collaboration), Constraints on light dark matter particles interacting with electrons from DAMIC at SNOLAB, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 181802 (2019).
  62. R. Essig, T. Volansky, and T.-T. Yu, New constraints and prospects for sub-GeV dark matter scattering off electrons in xenon, Phys. Rev. D 96, 043017 (2017).
  63. P. Agnes et al. (DarkSide Collaboration), Constraints on Sub-GeV dark-matter–electron scattering from the DarkSide-50 experiment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 111303 (2018).
  64. E. Aprile et al. (XENON Collaboration), Light dark matter search with ionization signals in XENON1T, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 251801 (2019).
  65. H. An, M. Pospelov, J. Pradler, and A. Ritz, Direct detection constraints on dark photon dark matter, Phys. Lett. B 747, 331 (2015).
  66. R. Agnese et al. (SuperCDMS Collaboration), First dark matter constraints from a SuperCDMS single-charge sensitive detector, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 051301 (2018); 122, 069901(E) (2019).
  67. Q. Arnaud et al. (EDELWEISS Collaboration), First germanium-based constraints on sub-MeV dark matter with the EDELWEISS experiment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 141301 (2020).
  68. A. Andrianavalomahefa et al. (FUNK Experiment Collaboration), Limits from the funk experiment on the mixing strength of hidden-photon dark matter in the visible and near-ultraviolet wavelength range, Phys. Rev. D 102, 042001 (2020).
  69. H. An, M. Pospelov, and J. Pradler, Dark matter detectors as dark photon helioscopes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 041302 (2013).
  70. H. An, M. Pospelov, J. Pradler, and A. Ritz, New limits on dark photons from solar emission and keV scale dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 102, 115022 (2020).
  71. M. Ibe, W. Nakano, Y. Shoji, and K. Suzuki, Migdal effect in dark matter direct detection experiments, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2017) 194.
  72. B. Campbell-Deem, S. Knapen, T. Lin, and E. Villarama, Dark matter direct detection from the single phonon to the nuclear recoil regime, Phys. Rev. D 106, 036019 (2022).
  73. E. Armengaud et al. (EDELWEISS Collaboration), Searching for low-mass dark matter particles with a massive ge bolometer operated above-ground, Phys. Rev. D 99, 082003 (2019).
  74. E. Armengaud et al. (EDELWEISS Collaboration), Search for sub-GeV dark matter via the Migdal effect with an EDELWEISS germanium detector with NbSi transition-edge sensors, Phys. Rev. D 106, 062004 (2022).
  75. P. Agnes et al. (DarkSide-50 Collaboration), Search for low-mass dark matter WIMPs with 12∼ton−day exposure of DarkSide-50, Phys. Rev. D 107, 063001 (2023).
  76. D. Franco (DarkSide-50 Collaboration), Light dark matter search with DarkSide-50, in 57th Rencontres de Moriond on Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories (2023); arXiv:2306.12151.
  77. I. Alkhatib et al. (SuperCDMS Collaboration), Light dark matter search with a high-resolution athermal phonon detector operated above ground, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 061801 (2021).
  78. M. F. Albakry et al. (SuperCDMS Collaboration), Search for low-mass dark matter via bremsstrahlung radiation and the migdal effect in SuperCDMS, Phys. Rev. D 107, 112013 (2023).
  79. A. H. Abdelhameed et al. (CRESST Collaboration), First results from the CRESST-III low-mass dark matter program, Phys. Rev. D 100, 102002 (2019).
  80. P. Adari et al. (SENSEI Collaboration), SENSEI: First direct-detection results on sub-GeV dark matter from SENSEI at SNOLAB, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 011804 (2025).
  81. D. Huang et al. (PandaX Collaboration), Search for dark-matter–nucleon interactions with a dark mediator in PandaX-4T, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 191002 (2023).
  82. D. S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), Results of a search for sub-GeV dark matter using 2013 LUX data, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 131301 (2019).
  83. R. Essig, J. Pradler, M. Sholapurkar, and T.-T. Yu, Relation between the Migdal effect and dark matter-electron scattering in isolated atoms and semiconductors, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 021801 (2020).
  84. T. Emken, C. Kouvaris, and I. M. Shoemaker, Terrestrial effects on dark matter-electron scattering experiments, Phys. Rev. D 96, 015018 (2017).
  85. T. Emken and C. Kouvaris, DaMaSCUS: The impact of underground scatterings on direct detection of light dark matter, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2017) 031.
  86. T. Emken and C. Kouvaris, How blind are underground and surface detectors to strongly interacting dark matter?, Phys. Rev. D 97, 115047 (2018).
  87. T. Emken, R. Essig, C. Kouvaris, and M. Sholapurkar, Direct detection of strongly interacting sub-GeV dark matter via electron recoils, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 09 (2019) 070.
  88. A. Lita, D. Rosenberg, S. Nam, A. Miller, D. Balzar, L. Kaatz, and R. Schwall, Tuning of tungsten thin film superconducting transition temperature for fabrication of photon number resolving detectors, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 15, 3528 (2005).
  89. K. M. Morgan, C. G. Pappas, D. A. Bennett, J. D. Gard, J. P. Hays-Wehle, G. C. Hilton, C. D. Reintsema, D. R. Schmidt, J. N. Ullom, and D. S. Swetz, Dependence of transition width on current and critical current in transition-edge sensors, Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 212602 (2017).
  90. P. Szypryt et al., Toward multiplexed kinetic inductance current sensor arrays, in 21st International Conference on Low Temperature Detectors-LTD2025, Santa Fe, NM, USA (2025).
  91. P. Szypryt et al., Kinetic inductance current sensor for visible to near-infrared wavelength transition-edge sensor readout, Commun. Eng. 3, 160 (2024).
  92. L. J. Hall, K. Jedamzik, J. March-Russell, and S. M. West, Freeze-in production of FIMP dark matter, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2010) 080.
  93. F. Elahi, C. Kolda, and J. Unwin, UltraViolet freeze-in, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2015) 048.
  94. C. Dvorkin, T. Lin, and K. Schutz, Making dark matter out of light: Freeze-in from plasma effects, Phys. Rev. D 99, 115009 (2019); 105, 119901(E) (2022).
  95. K. M. Zurek, Asymmetric dark matter: Theories, signatures, and constraints, Phys. Rep. 537, 91 (2014).
  96. Y. Hochberg, E. Kuflik, T. Volansky, and J. G. Wacker, Mechanism for thermal relic dark matter of strongly interacting massive particles, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 171301 (2014).
  97. Y. Hochberg, E. Kuflik, H. Murayama, T. Volansky, and J. G. Wacker, Model for thermal relic dark matter of strongly interacting massive particles, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 021301 (2015).
  98. E. Kuflik, M. Perelstein, N. R.-L. Lorier, and Y.-D. Tsai, Elastically decoupling dark matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 221302 (2016).
  99. E. Kuflik, M. Perelstein, N. R.-L. Lorier, and Y.-D. Tsai, Phenomenology of ELDER dark matter, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2017) 078.
  100. M. Chen, V. Takhistov, K. Nakayama, and K. Hattori, Light dark matter detection with sub-eV transition-edge sensors, Phys. Rev. D 113, 036006 (2026).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 114, 012006– Published 7 July, 2026
  • Received 15 December 2025
  • Accepted 30 March 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation