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Joseph Fowler (Assoc)

Joseph Fowler is an experimental physicist in the Quantum Sensors Group at the NIST Boulder Laboratories. He joined NIST after a period working with arrays of superconducting microwave-frequency detectors in the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. His research focuses on the use of superconducting x-ray and gamma-ray sensors with very high energy resolution. He specializes in data analysis and scientific computing, including the complex software required to operate arrays of high-speed sensors and the analytic tools required for extraction of accurate energy values from them. He is involved in projects to make world-leading metrological measurements of x-ray emission and absorption processes; 3-dimensional x-ray computed tomography of objects at 100 nm spatial resolution; and many other measurements with superconducting sensors at NIST, x-ray synchrotrons, and radio-isotope analysis labs. He has written or co-authored over 200 publications in spectroscopy, observational cosmology, statistical analysis, and cosmic-ray measurements. He has contributed to work by NIST teammates that has won NIST Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals.

Research Interests

  • Metrology of fundamental x-ray parameters such as x-ray fluorescence emission.
  • Nanometer-scale x-ray computed tomography of microelectronics.
  • Development of scientific computing software for high-precision analysis of data from superconducting microcalorimeters.
  • New applications of precision x-ray spectroscopy.

Awards

  • NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory Distinguished Associate (2015, 2017, and 2020)

Publications

Spectroscopic Measurements and Models of Energy Deposition in the Substrate of Quantum Circuits by Natural Ionizing Radiation

Author(s)
Joseph Fowler, Paul Szypryt, Raymond Bunker, Ellen Edwards, Ian Fogarty Florang, JIANSONG GAO, Shannon Hoogerheide, Ben Loer, Hans Mumm, Nathan Nakamura, John Orrell, Elizabeth M. Scott, Jason Stevens, Daniel Swetz, Brent VanDevender, Michael Vissers, Joel Ullom
Naturally occurring background radiation is a potential source of correlated decoherence events in superconducting qubits that will challenge error-correction

Few-electron highly charged muonic Ar atoms verified by electronic K xrays

Author(s)
Takuma Okumura, Toshiyuki Azuma, Douglas Bennett, W. Bertrand (Randy) Doriese, Malcolm Durkin, Joseph Fowler, Johnathon Gard, Tadashi Hashimoto, Ryota Hayakawa, Yuto Ichinohe, Paul Indelicato, Tadaaki Isobe, Sohtaro Kanda, Daiji Kato, Miho Katsuragawa, Naritoshi Kawamura, Yasushi Kino, Nao Kominato, Yasuhiro Miyake, Kelsey Morgan, Hirofumi Noda, Galen O'Neil, Shinji Okada, Kenichi Okutsu, Nancy Paul, Carl D. Reintsema, Toshiki Sato, Dan Schmidt, Kouichiro Shimomura, Patrick Strasser, Daniel Swetz, Tadayuki Takahashi, Shinichiro Takeda, Soshi Takeshita, Motonobu Tampo, Hideyuki Tatsuno, Tong Xiao-Min, Joel Ullom, Shin Watanabe, Shinya Yamada, Takuma Yamashita
Electronic K x rays emitted by muonic Ar atoms in the gas phase were observed using a superconducting transition-edge-sensor microcalorimeter. The high

Nanoscale Three-Dimensional Imaging of Integrated Circuits Using a Scanning Electron Microscope and Transition-Edge Sensor Spectrometer

Author(s)
Nathan Nakamura, Paul Szypryt, Amber Dagel, Bradley Alpert, Douglas Bennett, W.Bertrand (Randy) Doriese, Malcolm Durkin, Joseph Fowler, Dylan Fox, Johnathon Gard, Ryan Goodner, James Zachariah Harris, Gene C. Hilton, Edward Jimenez, Burke Kernen, Kurt Larson, Zachary H. Levine, Daniel McArthur, Kelsey Morgan, Galen O'Neil, Christine Pappas, Carl D. Reintsema, Dan Schmidt, Peter Schulz, Daniel Swetz, Kyle Thompson, Joel Ullom, Leila R. Vale, Courtenay Vaughan, Christopher Walker, Joel Weber, Jason Wheeler
X-ray nanotomography is a powerful tool for the characterization of nanoscale materials and structures, but it is difficult to implement due to the competing

Patents (2018-Present)

X-Ray Spectrometer

X-Ray Spectrometer

NIST Inventors
Kevin L. Silverman , Carl D. Reintsema , Galen O'Neil , Luis Miaja Avila , Daniel Swetz , W.Bertrand (Randy) Doriese , Dan Schmidt , Bradley Alpert , Joseph Fowler , Joel Ullom and Ralph Jimenez
This invention includes: an x-ray plasma source that produces primary x-rays; an x-ray optic that transmits and focuses the primary x-ray onto a sample jet from which fluorescence x-ray are emitted; and a microcalorimeter array detector that measures the energy of the incoming fluorescence x-rays
Created June 6, 2019, Updated October 11, 2023