Study of Cosmic Ray Impact on Planck/HFI Low Temperature Detectors

After the focal plane of the HFI instrument of the Planck mission (launched in May 2009) reached its operational temperature, we observed thermal signatures of interactions of cosmic rays with the Planck satellite, located at the L2 Lagrange point. When a particle hits a component of the bolometers (e.g. thermometer, grid or wafer) mounted on the focal plane of HFI, a thermal spike (called glitch) due to energy deposition is measured. Processing these data revealed another effect due to particle showers of high energy cosmic rays: High Coincidence Events (HCE), composed of glitches occurring coincidentally in many detectors followed by a temperature increase from the nK to the uK. A flux of about 100 HCE per hour has been estimated. Two types of HCE have been detected: fast and slow. For the first type, the untouched bolometers reached, within a few seconds, the same temperature as those which were "touched". This can be explained by the storage of the energy deposited in the stainless steel focal plane. The second type of HCE is not fully understood yet. These effects might be explained by an extra conduction due to the helium released by cryogenic surfaces and creating a temporary thermal link between the different stages of the HFI.
Comment: LTD15; 6 pages, 5 figures