Revealing the high-redshift Universe with superconducting on-chip spectrometers

利用超导片上光谱仪揭示高红移宇宙

• 批准号: MR/W006499/1
• 负责人: Peter Barry
• 金额: $ 179.31万
• 依托单位: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FW006499%2F1
• 关键词: Revealing; redshift; Universe; superconducting; chip

How did the Universe begin? When did the first galaxies form? What is "dark energy"? These are some of the major outstanding questions in modern astronomy and cosmology. The answers to these questions are encoded in the distribution of matter and how it has evolved throughout the history of the Universe. This fellowship will develop a novel sensor technology that will enable a new class of astrophysical experiments that will probe of the evolution of structure throughout cosmic time.When we point our telescopes toward the night sky, we observe light that originates from millions of stars and galaxies. Because light takes time to travel to us, we are effectively looking back in time, and by taking images of the night sky we are able to build up a picture of the history of distribution of matter as the Universe evolved. To extract all the information about a galaxy, a measure of the total brightness and the colour of the light is needed. Spectrographs are able to separate light into colours, and are a key tool that can be used to construct large catalogues of galaxies. These galaxy surveys, in combination with the cosmic microwave background (CMB), have shaped our current understanding of the origin, content, and evolution of the Universe. Despite this wealth of data, direct evidence of how our Universe began and a true understanding of dark energy remain elusive. Typical galaxy surveys are built using powerful telescopes that operate at optical/infrared wavelengths. This choice of wavelength is well suited to nearby galaxies, probing only late times whilst leaving the early Universe relatively undiscovered. The expansion of the Universe modifies the light emitted from very distant galaxies and stretches the wavelength into the sub-millimetre (sub-mm) wavelength range. Detection of this faint sub-mm light poses a number of challenges and requires a fundamentally different detection technology to traditional semiconductor arrays. While mature solutions exist for sub-mm single-colour cameras, technology for sub-mm spectroscopy is an area requiring dedicated development. Current state-of-the art instruments are bulky and expensive, often requiring moving parts that are challenging to scale. The main technical objective of this fellowship will be to develop a novel technology that provides a miniaturised, low-cost solution that takes advantage of well-established techniques. The key to this technology is a combination of finely tuned superconducting integrated circuits deposited on a single silicon wafer. With superconducting circuits defined lithographically, an entire spectrometer can be realised on a square centimetre of silicon; this functionality would previously have required an instrument close to a metre in size. The significant reduction in size and cost will enable the construction of 2D arrays with thousands of spectrometers, and building on the heritage and experience gained from initial proof-of-concept devices, this fellowship will develop, demonstrate, and optimise scalable on-chip superconducting spectrometers capable of operating over the entire sub-mm wavelength range. A dedicated demonstration at the Mexican 50-m Large Millimetre Telescope within this fellowship offers a unique opportunity to boost the maturity of this novel technology, and success would open up a new class of galaxy surveys that target the earliest galaxies in our Universe, complementing existing optical/infrared galaxy surveys. In fact, the combination of these techniques would serve as important systematic cross-checks, and cross-correlations between the surveys promise to be a powerful approach to further improve constraints on cosmological parameters.

宇宙是如何开始的？第一个星系是什么时候形成的？什么是“暗能量”？这些是现代天文学和宇宙学中一些主要的悬而未决的问题。这些问题的答案都蕴含在物质的分布以及物质在宇宙历史中如何演化的过程中。该奖学金将开发一种新颖的传感器技术，该技术将实现新型天体物理实验，探索整个宇宙时间结构的演化。当我们将望远镜指向夜空时，我们观察到源自数百万颗恒星和星系的光。因为光需要时间才能传播到我们这里，所以我们实际上是在回顾过去，通过拍摄夜空的图像，我们能够绘制出宇宙演化过程中物质分布的历史图景。要提取有关星系的所有信息，需要测量总亮度和光的颜色。光谱仪能够将光分离成颜色，是构建大型星系目录的关键工具。这些星系调查与宇宙微波背景（CMB）相结合，塑造了我们目前对宇宙起源、内容和演化的理解。尽管有如此丰富的数据，但我们的宇宙如何开始的直接证据以及对暗能量的真正理解仍然难以捉摸。典型的星系巡天是使用在光学/红外波长下运行的强大望远镜进行的。这种波长的选择非常适合附近的星系，仅探测较晚的星系，而使早期宇宙相对未被发现。宇宙的膨胀改变了从非常遥远的星系发出的光，并将波长延伸到亚毫米（sub-mm）波长范围。检测这种微弱的亚毫米光提出了许多挑战，并且需要与传统半导体阵列完全不同的检测技术。虽然亚毫米单色相机已有成熟的解决方案，但亚毫米光谱技术是一个需要专门开发的领域。当前最先进的仪器体积庞大且昂贵，通常需要难以扩展的移动部件。该奖学金的主要技术目标是开发一种新技术，提供一种利用成熟技术的小型化、低成本解决方案。这项技术的关键是在单个硅晶片上沉积精细调谐的超导集成电路的组合。通过光刻定义的超导电路，可以在一平方厘米的硅上实现整个光谱仪；以前，此功能需要尺寸接近一米的仪器。尺寸和成本的显着减小将使得能够构建具有数千个光谱仪的二维阵列，并且基于从初始概念验证设备中获得的传统和经验，该奖学金将开发、演示和优化可扩展的片上超导能够在整个亚毫米波长范围内工作的光谱仪。该奖学金期间在墨西哥 50 米大型毫米望远镜进行的专门演示为促进这项新技术的成熟提供了独特的机会，成功将开辟一类新的星系调查，以我们宇宙中最早的星系为目标，补充现有的星系光学/红外星系巡天。事实上，这些技术的结合将作为重要的系统交叉检查，并且调查之间的交叉相关性有望成为进一步改善宇宙学参数约束的有力方法。

项目成果

Optical Leakage Mitigation in Ortho-Mode Transducer Detectors for Microwave Applications

用于微波应用的正交模式传感器探测器中的光泄漏缓解

• DOI: http://dx.10.1007/s10909-022-02733-9
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Journal of Low Temperature Physics
• 影响因子: 2
• 作者: Gualtieri R

Development of MKIDs for Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background with the South Pole Telescope

开发用于南极望远镜测量宇宙微波背景的 MKID

• DOI: 10.1007/s10909-022-02750-8
• 发表时间: 2021-11-08
• 期刊: Journal of Low Temperature Physics
• 影响因子: 2
• 作者: K. Dibert;P. Barry;Z. Pan;A. Anderson;B. Benson;Clarence Chang;K. Karkare;Juliang Li;T. Natoli;M. Rouble;E. Shirokoff;A. Stark
• 通讯作者: A. Stark

SPT-3G+: mapping the high-frequency cosmic microwave background using kinetic inductance detectors

SPT-3G：使用动感电感探测器绘制高频宇宙微波背景图

• DOI: http://dx.10.1117/12.2629755
• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Anderson A

Coherent Coupling of Two Remote Magnonic Resonators Mediated by Superconducting Circuits.

由超导电路介导的两个远程磁共振谐振器的相干耦合。

• DOI: http://dx.10.1103/physrevlett.128.047701
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Physical review letters
• 影响因子: 8.6
• 作者: Li Y

Testing Low-Loss Microstrip Materials with MKIDs for Microwave Applications

使用 MKID 测试微波应用的低损耗微带材料

• DOI: http://dx.10.1007/s10909-022-02881-y
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Journal of Low Temperature Physics
• 影响因子: 2
• 作者: Hood J