Large-scale Polarimeter Array with Integrated Tunnel Junction Cooling

Normal-Insulator-Superconductor (NIS) tunnel junctions are solid-state devices capable of cooling thin film or bulk payloads at sub-Kelvin temperatures. The performance of NIS refrigerators has improved steadily in recent years and we will leverage this progress to build an array of microwave polarimeters with integrated NIS cooling. The use of NIS refrigerators will improve pixel sensitivity, size, and mechanical robustness. By design, the polarimeter array will be well matched to a future suborbital mission to study polarization in the cosmic microwave background. The array will also demonstrate the suitability of NIS refrigerators for a future NASA satellite mission.

The Astrophysics Research and Analysis program (APRA) supports suborbital and suborbital-class investigations, development of detectors and supporting technology, laboratory astrophysics, and limited ground-based observing. Basic research proposals in these areas are solicited for investigations that are relevant to NASA's programs in astronomy and astrophysics, including the entire range of photons, gravitational waves, and particle astrophysics. The emphasis of this solicitation is on technologies and investigations that advance NASA astrophysics missions and goals.

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