Welcome to the Shirokoff lab

Detectors for astronomy at millimeter and submillimeter wavelength reached the background limit - the point at which photon counting statistics dominate instrumental noise - years ago. It's no longer possible to build a more sensitive detector. The best we can do is pack more detectors into a receiver. As a result, focal planes have grown from single hand-assembled pixels to lithographically defined arrays comprised of hundreds of detectors. To meet the science goals of the coming decade, future instruments will need to employ massive focal planes and hundred-kilopixel arrays.

While we can't build a more sensitive detector, there's still plenty of opportunity to build a better one. One strategy is to make each pixel do more: using on-chip microwave circuits and broad-band antennas and optics to enable multichroic detectors and integral-field spectrometers, packing more bandwidth into each physical device. Alternatively, we can make each pixel cheaper, more robust, and easier to read out with multiplexed hardware.

Our lab is working on both goals. Using modern thin-film processes and electromagnetic simulation software, we're working to move optical elements on-chip, replacing bulky and expensive mechanical hardware with planar circuits. When it comes to simple fabrication and low cost multiplexing, few technologies can compete with kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs). These pair-breaking superconducting detectors can be fabricated in a few layers and read-out at densities of thousands of channels per coax cable, and are approaching the sensitivity required for even low-loading applications at mm wavelengths.

Want to work with us? If the idea of hands-on, table-top cosmology appeals to you, don't hesitate to send us a note or stop by to say hello.

There are plenty of opportunities for both short-term and long-term projects in our lab. At the moment most of our work is focused on designing, fabricating and testing new detectors and superconducting microwave circuits, and in commissioning new lab hardware. In the next few years there will be opportunities for instrument integration, deploying to the telescope, and analyzing astronomical data.