Design and operational experience of a microwave cavity axion detector for the 20–100μeV range

Abstract We describe a dark matter axion detector designed, constructed, and operated both as an innovation platform for new cavity and amplifier technologies and as a data pathfinder in the 5–25 GHz range ( ∼ 20 – 100 μ eV ) . The platform is small but flexible to facilitate the development of new microwave cavity and amplifier concepts in an operational environment. The experiment has recently completed its first data production; it is the first microwave cavity axion search to deploy a Josephson parametric amplifier and a dilution refrigerator to achieve near-quantum limited performance.