Detector Array Readout with Traveling Wave Amplifiers

Abstract

Noise at the quantum limit over a large bandwidth is a fundamental requirement for future applications operating at millikelvin temperatures, such as the neutrino mass measurement, the next-generation x-ray observatory, the CMB measurement, the dark matter and axion detection, and the rapid high-fidelity readout of superconducting qubits. The read out sensitivity of arrays of microcalorimeter detectors, resonant axion-detectors, and qubits, is currently limited by the noise temperature and bandwidth of the cryogenic amplifiers. The DARTWARS (Detector Array Readout with Traveling Wave AmplifieRS) project has the goal of developing high-performing innovative traveling wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) with a high gain, a high saturation power, and a quantum-limited or nearly quantum-limited noise. The practical development follows two different promising approaches, one based on the Josephson junctions and the other one based on the kinetic inductance of a high-resistivity superconductor. In this contribution we present the aims of the project, the adopted design solutions and preliminary results from simulations and measurements.