Astronomical Observations with MKIDs

Radio Astronomy and Cosmic Microwave Background

Abstract

The cutting-edge superconducting detector, Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector（MKID） has been popular in the field of astronomical radio observations such as Cosmic Microwave Background（CMB）, star-forming regions, and galaxy surveying. MKID is a resonator-based superconducting detector which has the scalability to exceed O（1,000） pixels in one readout line. The photon-noise-limited sensitivity can be achieved with the hybrid-type MKID which consists of two superconducting materials. The hybrid-type MKID arrays are utilized in “GroundBIRD” and “Tsukuba-KID camera” projects which are led by Japanese teams. Each project observed astronomical objects by the commissioning with developed MKID arrays and will start the science observations in the near future.