Superconductor Detectors

A native of Kochi Prefecture in Japan, Masataka Ohkubo graduated from the National Institute of Technology, Kochi College, in 1979. He received the M.S. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Toyohashi University of Technology in 1983. He worked with Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. from 1983 to 1993, during which time high-temperature superconductors (HTSs) were discovered. With the work on epitaxial thin-film growth and characterization of HTSs, he received the Ph.D. degree from Toyohashi University of Technology in 1991. In 1993, he joined the quantum radiation division at Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL). Between 1995 to 1997, he was a guest researcher at Karlsruhe Research Center (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and a visiting researcher at University of Tübingen. He explored the possibility of using the intrinsic Josephson effect in BSCCO thin films for developing superconductor X-ray detectors. After returning to ETL, his research topics included X-ray spectroscopy and mass spectrometry with superconductor detectors such as superconductor tunnel junction detectors (STJDs), transition edge sensor detectors (TESDs), and superconductor nanostrip particle detectors (SSPDs). After ETL merged with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in 2001, he pursued innovations in superconductivity-based analytical science, collaborating with researchers worldwide.

His current international duties include serving as the convener of International Electrotechnical Commission – Technical Committee 90 / Working Group 14 (IEC-TC90/WG14) for superconductor electronic devices, as an associate editor of the IEEE Superconductivity News Forum (SNF), and as a board member of several international conferences. He is now an emeritus researcher in AIST.