Large Format Superconducting Detector Arrays

Our aim is to develop arrays of superconducting Kinetic Inductance Detectors beyond the current state-of-the-art for use with future millimetre and sub-millimetre observatories. Future large aperture ground-based mm/sub mm telescopes are crucial for progressing our understanding of star formation and galaxy evolution enabling statistically significant surveys of the high-z universe beyond the confusion limit and high spatial resolution observations of star formation regions in the local group. Current facilities such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) are limited large area mapping speed while large field of view telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and future Simons observatory are limited in angular resolution. Therefore, future observatories such as the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) will provide the essential capabilities to further our understanding of cosmology and astrophysics. However, such observatories will require of order 1000 times the number of detectors fielded on current telescopes of this type. This is significant technological challenge that requires immediate development effort. Building upon experience with detector array development using Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs), we plan to develop detectors with i) the capability of increasing multiplexing ratios (number of detectors read out on a single channel), ii) removing the need for cryogenic amplifiers that add significant heat load to cryogenic instruments when used in large numbers, and iii) developing new readout electronics that exploits advances in the field of commercially available microwave electronics and offers a route to increased multiplexing ratios along with the ability to adjust readout tuning on the fly to adapt to changing observing conditions. Our vision is to prove this approach in a timely manner for the UK’s involvement in new instrumentation on current and future observatories providing astronomers with the instrumentation required to advance current understanding limited by our capability to image large areas of sky at sufficient resolution at millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths.