No abstract available

[en] Simultaneous detection of light and phonons or heat (the luminescent bolometer) was proposed in 1988 in view of dark matter detection and considered later for double beta experiments. Fast single crystal scintillators made of indium compounds have been developed for neutrino physics. Combining both ideas, simultaneous detection of light and phonons in a scintillating single crystal made of an indium compound and cooled to very low temperature, may reach three basic performances: a) better effective segmentation; b) fast timing from the light strobe; c) good energy resolution. Other uses were also proposed including spectroscopy with particle identification, thermal neutron detection with a ⁶Li target, neutrino experiments based on nucleus recoil etc. Photosensitive devices based on superconducting tunnel junctions appear as a suitable read out, able to collect the light pulse followed by the delayed front of phonons. (K.A.) 30 refs.; 2 figs

[en] We present the first efficiency measurement of a superheated superconducting granule (SSG) detector irradiated with minimum ionizing particles (mips). The SSG device is a solenoid readout coil filled with tin granules (22 μm average diameter) embedded (16% volume filling factor) in a good thermal conductor varnish cooled down to T = 490 mK. It is shown that a 2 mm thick detector is close to 100% efficient (1σ over the electronic noise) to mips. The probability of a mip to hit at least one granule, sensitive to an energy deposition of 16 keV or more over the detector length, is approximately 100%. Only 10% of the granules in the detector were sensitive to mips because of the finite granule size distribution and the phase transition smearing observed with this sample. (orig.)