Presidential Young Investigator Award: Microfabrication Facility for Superconducting Detectors for Elementary Particles

该奖项支持Barbara J. Neuhauser博士在基本粒子物理学方面的研究，Barbara J. Neuhauser博士是加州旧金山州立大学的总统青年研究员，其研究目标是开发超导探测器，用于弱相互作用的非重子粒子，这些粒子可能形成宇宙的“暗物质”。由于暗物质粒子的识别取决于探测器的发展，其灵敏度阈值比最好的传统粒子探测器低，因此提出了一种新型的低温探测器，称为硅晶体声学探测器（SiCAD）。研究将包括在这种新型探测器上开发用于声子探测器的极灵敏超导隧道结。声子是由入射粒子与在极低温度下冷却的超纯单晶硅立方体中的原子核或电子碰撞产生的。

This award supports research in Elementary Particle Physics by Dr. Barbara J. Neuhauser, a Presidential Young Investigator, San Francisco State University, CA. The aim of the research in the development of superconducting detectors for weakly interacting non baryonic particles which may form the "dark matter" of the universe. Since the identification of dark matter particles depends upon the development of detectors with a lower threshold of sensitivity than are offered by the best conventional particle detectors, the use of a new type of cryogenic detector, called a silicon crystal acoustic detector (SiCAD), has been proposed. The research will consists in the development of extremely sensitive superconducting tunnel junction for use as phonon detector on this new detector. The phonons are generated by the collision of an incident particle with a nucleus or electron in a cube of ultra-pure single crystal silicon cooled at very low temperature.