  In recent years, theoretical and experimental interest in dark matter (DM)
candidates have shifted focus from primarily Weakly-Interacting Massive
Particles (WIMPs) to an entire suite of candidates with masses from the
zeV-scale to the PeV-scale to 30 solar masses. One particular recent
development has been searches for light dark matter (LDM), which is typically
defined as candidates with masses in the range of keV to GeV. In searches for
LDM, eV-scale and below detector thresholds are needed to detect the small
amount of kinetic energy that is imparted to nuclei in a recoil. One such
detector technology that can be applied to LDM searches is that of
Transition-Edge Sensors (TESs). Operated at cryogenic temperatures, these
sensors can achieve the required thresholds, depending on the optimization of
the design.
  In this thesis, I will motivate the evidence for DM and the various DM
candidates beyond the WIMP. I will then detail the basics of TES
characterization, expand and apply the concepts to an athermal phonon
sensor--based Cryogenic PhotoDetector (CPD), and use this detector to carry out
a search for LDM at the surface. The resulting exclusion analysis provides the
most stringent limits in DM-nucleon scattering cross section (comparing to
contemporary searches) for a cryogenic detector for masses from 93 to 140 MeV,
showing the promise of athermal phonon sensors in future LDM searches.
Furthermore, unknown excess background signals are observed in this LDM search,
for which I rule out various possible sources and motivate stress-related
microfractures as an intriguing explanation. Finally, I will shortly discuss
the outlook of future searches for LDM for various detection channels beyond
nuclear recoils.
