Zachary Berkowitz with John Ruhl

Design, Fabrication and Testing of Suspended Millimeter-wave Absorbers

Research into the nature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is an ongoing field of study.  New designs and new materials for detectors which promise better results are being developed and modeled for use in upcoming experiments.  However, such devices must at present be constructed elsewhere off the Case Western Reserve University campus.  This project aims to move towards the in-house construction of such devices by working though the process of design, fabrication and testing of silicon nitride suspended elements constructed in a clean room on campus. Testing of this device could then help improve the development of polarization sensitive detectors to be used in future CMB studies.