Superconducting Detectors and Devices for Cosmology and Beyond (QIS)

Advances in superconducting electronics have transformed superconducting detector technology. Today, we can deploy superconducting detector systems to measure signals beyond the capabilities of traditional silicon technology. Applications are broad including: dark matter, cosmic microwave background (i.e. studies of the early universe), long wavelength astronomy, and neutrino physics. In this talk, I will give an overview of our superconducting detectors program at Argonne, a collaboration between High Energy Physics, Materials Sciences and the University of Chicago. I will discuss our primary interest in developing and delivering detectors for studies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), beginning with the SPT-POL experiment and more recently the SPT-3G experiment. SPT-3G is the largest CMB focal plane in the world having ~16,000 polarization sensitive detectors with a multi-chroic architecture. I will also discuss future directions including even bigger CMB focal planes, new applications for neutrinos and potential connections with quantum information science.