Presidential Young Investigator (PYI) Award: Development of Superconducting Detectors for Use in Submillimeter Spectroscopy

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Research under this Presidential Young Investigator Award will have three main thrusts. The first is the development of improved submillimeter receiver components. The Principal Investigator is particularly interested in expoiting superconducting thin film and tunnel junction technology to develop novel submillimeter circuits. Devices such as SIS mixers, 2-dimensional imaging arrays, submillimeter Josephson oscillators, SQUID and parametric amplifiers, low-loss transmission lines, passive components such as filters couplers, and perhaps even integrated receivers are all feasible with this technology. The second thrust is the construction of practical receiver systems for astronomical use at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory and the Antarctic Telescope and also on airborne telescopes, and eventually for space missions. This effort will be pursued in parallel with the first, using existing components when necessary but taking advantage of new components as they are developed. The third thrust is the employment of these receivers to attack astrophysical problems. Principal interests at present are the structure and physics of molecular clouds, photodissociation regions, molecular outflows, and star-forming regions. Submillimeter spectroscopy is the optimal method for studying the warm and dencse gas typically found in these regions.