Jackson Kishbaugh-Maish with John Ruhl

How Light from the Cosmic Microwave Background Interacts with Filters

SPIDER and the South Pole Telescope (SPT) are two experiments that my advisor, Professor Ruhl, is involved in. Both experiments involve using telescopes to observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB). My goal in this project is to explore the way light interacts with some materials that are used as windows and filters in SPIDER and SPT. The goal of his experiment is to measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, the radiation that we see coming from all of space. If this polarization were to be detected it would be an indicator that there were gravity waves in the early universe. It is crucial that he understand exactly what his filters are doing to the light that is coming in from space because the signal Professor Ruhl is looking for is very small. It is for this reason that I will be measuring how much light is transmitted, reflected, scattered, and absorbed by these filters on the millimeter wavelength spectrum.