Superconducting Microwave Detector Technology for Ultra-Light Dark Matter Haloscopes and other Fundamental Physics Experiments: Device Physics (Part II)

Abstract

We consider and compare candidate superconducting detector technologies that might be applied to the readout of cavity-axion haloscopes and similar fundamental physics experiments. We conclude that a transition edge sensor (TES) configured with ballistic-phonon thermal isolation operated with a superconducting transition temperature of order 30 mK would provide quantum-limited detection performance at frequencies above 5 GHz. This would permit the realisation of integrated homodyne detectors based on TESs that we believe would make a unique contribution to a variety of fundamental physics experiments, particularly those based on reading out microwave cavities in the quantum ground state.