Description: TES bolometers, KIDs, and MKIDs at millikelvin temperatures for CMB photon detection.
Develops cryogenic detector technology for CMB experiments. Directions: (1) TES bolometer array design and fabrication for SPT-3G and CMB-S4; (2) MKID detector development as alternative to TES for next-generation CMB focal planes; (3) low-noise SQUID multiplexed readout for large-format arrays; (4) SPT-3G science: CMB lensing, cluster SZ, B-mode polarization. Argonne joint appointment.
Experimental cosmologist building and operating CMB telescopes. Directions: (1) South Pole Telescope â PI of SPT series; SPT-3G currently mapping CMB temperature and polarization at arcminute resolution; (2) thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect mapping for galaxy cluster cosmology; (3) CMB gravitational lensing for large-scale structure; (4) CMB-S4 design and planning. Argonne joint appointment. APS and AAAS Fellow.
Develops superconducting detector and readout systems for CMB observations. Directions: (1) SQUID-multiplexed readout architecture for large TES bolometer arrays (SPT-3G, CMB-S4); (2) transition-edge sensor bolometer fabrication and characterization; (3) MKID detector development; (4) CMB-S4 instrument design. Argonne joint appointment. Deep expertise in quantum-limited cryogenic detector readout.
Irwin invented the transition-edge sensor (TES) and pioneered SQUID-multiplexed readout now used throughout CMB and dark-matter detector arrays; his group builds quantum-limited electromagnetic sensors for axion dark matter searches (DMRadio) and cryogenic calorimeters, pushing sensitivity to the standard quantum limit and beyond -- a field of quantum sensing that, like ensemble NV-diamond magnetometry reaching pT/âHz sensitivities, trades off bandwidth and volume for extreme field sensitivity.
Jones leads the SPIDER balloon-borne CMB polarimeter (and the successor Taurus mission), building and flying large TES bolometer arrays from Antarctic long-duration balloon platforms to measure degree-scale CMB polarization with minimal atmospheric loading, and also leads SuperBIT, a near-diffraction-limited stratospheric optical telescope. Like Staggs, he is included here as an astronomy/instrumentation pivot whose science case rests on cutting-edge cryogenic detector-array sensitivity.
Develops cryogenic microcalorimeter/TES-based X-ray and far-infrared detector arrays used in X-ray astronomy and CMB instrumentation.
Experimental cosmologist developing next-generation CMB detector arrays. Directions: (1) CMB-S4 detector development â leading TES bolometer and MKID array design for 500,000-detector focal plane; (2) South Pole Telescope SPT-3G operations and analysis; (3) cryogenic readout electronics including SQUID multiplexing at millikelvin temperatures; (4) quantum-limited photon detection at mm/submm wavelengths. APS Fellow.
Reichardt leads Melbourne's CMB effort and is a member of SPT-3G, the third-generation South Pole Telescope camera, whose focal plane is populated by ~16,000 transition-edge sensor bolometers read out by SQUID multiplexers. His science targets are CMB lensing, the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and the small-scale temperature and polarisation power spectra; the enabling technology is cryogenic quantum-limited detection. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work â DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity â this is the astronomical analogue of the same problem â a detector whose noise floor is set by fundamental quantum limits rather than by the source â and TES/SQUID readout is a natural pivot for a physicist trained on pT/sqrt(Hz) magnetometry, since SQUID amplification is the shared hardware. Preferred attribute present: astronomy where the quantum sensor is the enabling technology.
Staggs is PI of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (Advanced ACTPol) and co-Director of the Simons Observatory, leading development and production of very large, sensitive cryogenic transition-edge-sensor (TES) focal-plane detector arrays used to map cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization anisotropies at ever finer angular resolution. This is included as an astronomy pivot on the strength of its quantum-limited cryogenic detector instrumentation, which is the enabling technology for the high spectral/spatial resolution CMB science.
Tan leads the Superconducting Quantum Detectors group, holding ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants. Two main research pillars: (1) Quantum-limited SIS mixer development â pushing THz SIS heterodyne receivers above the Nb gap (~700 GHz) using NbTiN/NbN films for next-generation ALMA wideband sensitivity upgrade (Band 9) and large-format focal-plane mixer arrays for JCMT/SMA; (2) Superconducting parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) â fabricating kinetic-inductance and Josephson-junction TWPAs achieving near-quantum-limited broadband noise performance from microwave to THz, with applications to dark matter/axion searches (ABRACADABRA/prototype cavity haloscope), quantum computing qubit readout, and CMB-grade receivers. Group is transitioning TWPA fabrication in-house using Beecroft Building cleanroom. ERC Consolidator Grant awarded 2024.