A new Cryogen Free detector system has been added to the beamline. This system built by QMC Instruments provides a Superconducting Niobium TES Bolometer and a Ge: Cu detector element, providing spectral coverage from 10-1300 cm^-1. Both channels are cooled using a Cryomech pulsed tube cooler. This means that Liquid Helium is no longer required. This will mean that it will no longer be necessary to stop data collection for Liquid Helium fills. Also, there will no longer be the risk of premature warming of the detector. Furthermore, there will be significant savings to the Canadian Light Source which will free up money for other improvements.

This detector system generally matches or outperforms the Si Bolometer and Ge: Cu in terms of S/N throughout most of the 10-1300 cm^-1 region (with a few minor exceptions).

This detector will now be the default detector for use in the 10-1300 cm^-1 region.

We would like to thank the people at QMC Instruments who work with us for a long time to provide us this detector. A significant amount of development went into building a system that performed well throughout this region.