RII Track-4: Technology Development for the Next-Generation of Ground-Based Cosmic Microwave Background Instrumentation at Argonne National Lab

Measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) are a powerful tool to study and understand our universe. CMB-S4 is the project that will make the next generation of cosmic microwave background measurements, named ‘S4’ because it is building on three prior generations of technology development in this field. This EPSCoR RII Track 4 fellowship will provide the PI with a unique, timely opportunity to develop technology for CMB-S4 at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).

This fellowship will also enable enhancement in research capacity at the PI’s home institution, the University of New Mexico (UNM), by supporting the expansion of the PI’s instrumentation research, which has many opportunities for student involvement. UNM is a large public research university that is categorized as an R1 university, the highest level of research activity, and is also a minority institution and a Hispanic-serving institution.

This EPSCoR RII Track 4 fellowship will support work at Argonne National Lab on readout development for the next-generation cosmic microwave background project CMB-S4. The PI, Darcy Barron, is early-career faculty in the physics department at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and a member of the newly formed CMB-S4 collaboration. The fellowship host is Amy Bender, a member of the Experimental Cosmology group at Argonne National Lab, and a leader of the readout development group for CMB-S4.

Each new generation of experiments has made a leap in sensitivity through advances in detector fabrication, readout technology, and cryogenics. The work for this fellowship includes contributing to the development of the CMB-S4 instrument requirements and the complex cryogenic testing infrastructure necessary for the success of this new era of sensitivity.

The PI’s residence with the Experimental Cosmology group at Argonne will embed them in a multi-disciplinary group with facilities including a 17,000-square-foot nanofabrication facility producing prototypes for CMB-S4, and multiple sub-Kelvin cryogenic test stands for device characterization, prototype testing, and other technology development work. The PI will develop testing hardware and procedures for CMB-S4 and will duplicate this capacity for testing at the PI’s home institution.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.