Kuo develops and deploys TES bolometer arrays and SQUID-multiplexed readout electronics for cosmic microwave background polarization experiments (BICEP/Keck, South Pole Telescope, CMB-S4), pairing quantum-limited cryogenic sensor design with cosmology to search for inflationary gravitational-wave signatures.
Lee designs and builds large-format TES bolometer arrays and their SQUID-multiplexed cryogenic readout electronics for the South Pole Telescope and CMB-S4, working to push per-detector noise toward the fundamental photon-noise limit for next-generation cosmic microwave background polarization surveys.
Develops cryogenic microcalorimeter/TES-based X-ray and far-infrared detector arrays used in X-ray astronomy and CMB instrumentation.
Experimental cosmologist developing next-generation CMB detector arrays. Directions: (1) CMB-S4 detector development — leading TES bolometer and MKID array design for 500,000-detector focal plane; (2) South Pole Telescope SPT-3G operations and analysis; (3) cryogenic readout electronics including SQUID multiplexing at millikelvin temperatures; (4) quantum-limited photon detection at mm/submm wavelengths. APS Fellow.
Reichardt leads Melbourne's CMB effort and is a member of SPT-3G, the third-generation South Pole Telescope camera, whose focal plane is populated by ~16,000 transition-edge sensor bolometers read out by SQUID multiplexers. His science targets are CMB lensing, the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and the small-scale temperature and polarisation power spectra; the enabling technology is cryogenic quantum-limited detection. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — this is the astronomical analogue of the same problem — a detector whose noise floor is set by fundamental quantum limits rather than by the source — and TES/SQUID readout is a natural pivot for a physicist trained on pT/sqrt(Hz) magnetometry, since SQUID amplification is the shared hardware. Preferred attribute present: astronomy where the quantum sensor is the enabling technology.
Peter Smith (Professor, ORC Southampton) develops integrated photonic devices for quantum technologies and sensing. Research: (1) direct UV laser writing — waveguides and Bragg gratings in silica/glass for atom-trap integrated optics; (2) quantum photonic circuits — integrated waveguides for quantum computing and communication; (3) PPLN and nonlinear optics — electrical poling of LiNbO₃ for wavelength conversion (Covesion spinout); (4) integrated sensing — chemical/biological sensors and optofluidic microfluidic chips; (5) applications to cold atom systems — 'Integrated optical elements for miniaturised atom traps'. Spin-outs: Covesion, Stratophase.
Staggs is PI of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (Advanced ACTPol) and co-Director of the Simons Observatory, leading development and production of very large, sensitive cryogenic transition-edge-sensor (TES) focal-plane detector arrays used to map cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization anisotropies at ever finer angular resolution. This is included as an astronomy pivot on the strength of its quantum-limited cryogenic detector instrumentation, which is the enabling technology for the high spectral/spatial resolution CMB science.
Tan leads the Superconducting Quantum Detectors group, holding ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants. Two main research pillars: (1) Quantum-limited SIS mixer development — pushing THz SIS heterodyne receivers above the Nb gap (~700 GHz) using NbTiN/NbN films for next-generation ALMA wideband sensitivity upgrade (Band 9) and large-format focal-plane mixer arrays for JCMT/SMA; (2) Superconducting parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) — fabricating kinetic-inductance and Josephson-junction TWPAs achieving near-quantum-limited broadband noise performance from microwave to THz, with applications to dark matter/axion searches (ABRACADABRA/prototype cavity haloscope), quantum computing qubit readout, and CMB-grade receivers. Group is transitioning TWPA fabrication in-house using Beecroft Building cleanroom. ERC Consolidator Grant awarded 2024.
Develops instrumentation for cosmic microwave background telescopes and radiometers, including work related to CMB-S4 and 21-cm cosmology experiments.
Builds radio and mm-wave quantum-limited sensing instruments for high-energy astrophysics and cosmology. Directions: (1) PUEO — balloon-borne radio Cherenkov (Askaryan) detector for ultra-high-energy cosmogenic neutrinos; (2) RNO-G — ground-based radio neutrino array at Summit Station, Greenland; (3) UHE cosmic ray radio detection methodology; (4) CMB instrumentation (BICEP/Keck, SPT, CMB-S4). 2025 APS Fellow; 2022 Moore EPII award. Director KICP.