Shibo Shu

Developments of wide field submillimeter optics and lens antenna-coupled MKID cameras

Wide field cryogenic optics and millimeter-wave Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) cameras with Si lens array have been developed. MKID is a Cooper-pair breaking photon detector and consists of supercon- ducting resonators which enable microwave (~GHz) frequency multiplexing. Antenna-coupled Aluminum CPW resonators are put in a line on a Si substrate to be read by a pair of coaxial cables. A 220 GHz - 600 pixels MKID camera with anti-reflection (AR) coated Si lens has been demonstrated in an 0.1 K cryostat. A compact cryogenic system with high refractive index materials has been developed for the MKID camera.

Development of a Compact Cold Optics for Millimeter and Submillimeter Wave Observations

We have developed an optics for 220 GHz observations, which is a compact cold re-imaging one from a telescope focal plane, with F/# = 6 to a detector plane with F/# = 1 at 100 mK. It employs two high refractive lenses, high purity alumina (n=3.1) and silicon (n=3.4). To reduce the incident stray light into the detector, a cold nested baffle composed of four reflectors with the same spherical shape has been developed. The stray light power is simulated to be 0.2 μW which corresponds a quarter of that of a without-baffles case. The total transmittance of three kinds of IR blocking filters is 0.78 at the observation frequency, and less than 10-10 above 6 THz. Thermal flow power into the detector, including the stray light power, is about 0.7 μW. The cold optics with an 600 pixels MKID camera has been cooled down to 100 mK.

Broadband Corrugated Horn Array with Direct Machined Fabrication

We have developed a broadband corrugated horn in the 120-270 GHz and a horn array in the 80-180 GHz bands. The geometry of corrugations is so simple that the horn array can be directly machined from a bulk of aluminum with an end mill. The cross polarization and near sidelobe levels are less than -20 and -30 dB, respectively. The return loss is less than -15 dB in most design frequency bands, and the beam pattern is symmetric. The beam pattern and the return loss are measured in the 120-170 GHz range at room temperature. They are in good agreement with the simulation. It is possible to reduce reflection at the aperture surface and to reduce the weight by carving the unnecessary part. This design provides an octave bandwidth of the corrugated horn array at reasonable machining time.

Development of octave-band planar ortho-mode transducer with kinetic inductance detector for LiteBIRD

We demonstrate a design of octave-band circular waveguide coupled planar ortho-mode transducer (OMT) with Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) for LiteBIRD mission, a small-size satellite for cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization signal full-sky mapping. In our 4-pixel prototype design, each single pixel is sensitive to two frequency bands (90 GHz and 150 GHz) corresponding to atmospheric window. Silicon on insulator (SOI) has been selected for OMT structure and a broadband coplanar waveguide (CPW) 180-degree hybrid is designed to cancel higher modes of a circular waveguide and add two signals from the fundamental mode together. After a microstrip bandpass diplexer, a microstrip line to coplanar waveguide transition structure couples signal to MKID. MKIDs are designed with Nb ground plane and Al/Ti bilayer center strip line to achieve low frequency response and high sensitivity. A 4-pixel module is under test and we plan to deploy these multi- chroic polarimeters on Nobeyama 45m telescope.

Design of corrugated-horn-coupled MKID focal plane for CMB B-mode polarization

A focal plane based on MKID has been designed for cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarization experiments. We are designing and developing a focal plane with broadband corrugated horn array, planar OMT, 180 degree hybrid, bandpass filters, and MKIDs. The focal plane consists of 3 octave bands (55 - 108 GHz, 80 - 160 GHz, 160 - 320 GHz), 10 hexagonal modules. Broadband corrugated horn-array has been directly machined from an Al block and measured to have a good beam shape which is consistent with electromagnetic field simulations in octave bands. The horn array is designed to be low standing-wave, light weight, and electromagnetic shield. The broadband 4 probes ortho-mode transducer (OMT) is fabricated on Si membrane of an SOI wafer. A broadband 180 degree hybrid made with coplanar waveguide (CPW) is used to reduce higher modes of the circular waveguide. Two bandpass filters of each polarization are patterned with Nb microstrip. A prototype of the broadband corrugated horn coupled MKIDs has been fabricated and tested.

Study of Superconducting Bilayer for Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors for Astrophysics

Due to their multiplexing capability and their good sensitivity to radiation from submillimeter to X-ray wavelengths, microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) are increasingly used in the field of astrophysics. The Advanced Technology Center of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is developing MKIDs for astronomical observations such as CMB B-mode search with LiteBIRD. MKIDs are made of superconductors whose energy gap determines the detector frequency range. The energy gap depends on Tc, the critical temperature of the superconductor. It is thus important to be able to adjust Tc in order to choose the suitable frequency range. When using a single-layer MKID, the Tc is fixed by the superconducting gap energy of the unique component and cannot be changed. One possibility is to make a bilayer MKID using the proximity effect to adjust its critical temperature. This paper presents our new study on MKIDs made of superconductor/metal bilayers. We investigated niobium and copper bilayers (Nb/Cu) and fabricated different bilayers in our clean room. The critical temperature of each of them has been measured. We show that the Tc depends on the ratio between Nb and Cu thicknesses and that we are able to control it. Then, we characterized one of these Nb/Cu bilayers (Nb = 8 nm and Cu = 22 nm) once integrated in a MKID. We measured the temperature dependence of the resonant frequency, and we achieved quality factors as high as 2 × 104. The measurement of the noise spectrum provided a lower limit equal to -85 dBc/Hz, and the calculation of the noise equivalent power has shown that the sensitivity of the Nb/Cu bilayer MKID is not very far from that of an Al monolayer MKID.