Speaker
Description
Single-photon readout is a compelling technique for the next generation of dark matter haloscope experiments; it would entirely eliminate the quantum measurement noise seen in linear amplifier readout. The Rydberg/Axions at Yale (RAY) collaboration is developing single-photon detectors based on Rydberg atoms, highly-excited atomic states with exquisite sensitivity to electric fields. These detectors can be used for axion dark matter searches between 40 μeV and 200 μeV (10 GHz and 50 GHz) and would be compatible with a wide variety of haloscope cavity designs. I will present our recent work (Phys. Rev. D 109, 032009) detailing our single-photon detector concept and its potential to offer scan rate enhancements up to a factor of 10$^4$ over traditional linear amplifier readout. I will also share updates on our progress towards building a proof-of-principle Rydberg atom single-photon detector.
