CAREER: Developing Antenna-Coupled Kinetic Inductance Detectors to Enable Next Generation CMB Experiments

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The team will design, build and demonstrate arrays of Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs). A KID contains a very cold, resistance-free device. That device changes its properties when it "sees" the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the faint signal from the young Universe. Vast arrays of KIDs are needed for the next generation of CMB experiments. The team will also provide laboratory experience for undergraduates from underrepresented minorities and for high school students in the Chicago area.The team's goals are: (1) Fabricate single-layer resonators to characterize film properties, measure the intrinsic noise level, and verify sensitivity scaling laws. (2) Couple the resonators to a simple antenna, to measure the response and dielectric
 losses at millimeter wavelengths and to verify full coverage of the CMB atmospheric windows. (3) Test single-pixel multi-channel detectors coupled to wide-band log-periodic antennas, to verify background-limited operation under realistic conditions. (4) Conduct end-to-end laboratory tests of a demonstration KID array of about 2000 pixels. Future CMB experiments using KID arrays with millions of pixels will (a) precisely measure the number of neutrino species and the neutrino mass summed over those species, missing - but vital - information for testing theories of particle physics; and (b) dramatically improve searches for the primordial gravitational B-mode polarization that would prove that the Universe underwent the cosmic inflation posited by theorists.