Speaker
Description
Superconducting detectors offer a powerful alternative to classical coherent receivers. Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) are a type of superconducting detector that combines intrinsic frequency multiplexing with a simple cryogenic harness, making them attractive candidates for astronomical observatories. In particular, KIDs have already demonstrated outstanding performance in several mm/submm instruments, such as NIKA2 and AMKID.
In this talk, we will present our recent developments in advancing this technology. Significant efforts are being made to push detection limits toward the low-frequency band (< 90 GHz) by exploring new superconducting materials, including titanium/aluminum (Ti/Al) or titanium/gold (Ti/Au) bilayers, and Al/Ti/Au trilayers. We will cover the full development cycle of these devices, including microwave simulation, nanofabrication pipeline and cryogenic characterization.
Electromagnetic analysis confirms the suitability of these designs for operation in the low-frequency band, achieving background-limited performance under high-background conditions, and showing a low-background sensitivity in the 10 -19 W/√Hz range.
These results pave the way for large-format W-band detector arrays for future millimeter-wave instruments, such as the AtLAST observatory.