Development of Kinetic Inductance Detectors for Cosmic Microwave Background experiments

Abstract

We describe the design, optimization, electrical and optical tests of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) for the mm-wave range. Our detectors are based on a novel resonator design, and are suitable for ground-based astronomical observations in the 143 GHz atmospheric window. The measured optical Noise Equivalent Power (NEP) at 0.3 K is similar to 10(-16)W/root Hz under a 300 K background load. This is equivalent or better than the performance of the best current bolometric detectors for the 140 GHz atmospheric window, limited by atmospheric noise in the best available sites. We also describe which improvements can be introduced to reduce the NEP of our detector, for lower background applications (narrow band or space-based)

Front Matter: Volume 8444

“…Today, MKID arrays are produced in many laboratories (see e.g. [150][151][152] ) and are starting to be operated at large telescopes (see e.g. 153,154 ).…”

Progress in Precision Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background

“…The focus as present is on polarization measurements, [13]. Each pixel is a superconducting resonator, and incoming CMB photons break the Cooper pairs modifying the resonant frequency.…”

“…[8][9][10]). The fabrication technique of KIDs (Kinetic Inductance Detectors, [11][12][13], and fig.2) is in some respect simpler than the one of TES bolometers, and allows for a simpler readout of large arrays; however these detectors are just starting to be used at large telescopes [14], and their use in space applications needs to be developed.…”

The Front-End Electronics and the Data Acquisition System for a Kinetic Inductance Detector

“…Nevertheless, big arrays of spider web bolometers are not a viable solution, since they would need many connections; moreover, cooling the detector and placing temperature sensors over each pixel would be very difficult. Recently, Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) [2] have been shown to be useful to pursue this strategy. In the followings, we will describe the hardware/software environment and the Front-End electronics of a Data Acquisition (DAQ) system for an array of KIDs.…”