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The South Pole Telescope Bolometer Array and the Measurement of Secondary Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy at Small Angular Scales

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The South Pole Telescope Bolometer Array and the Measurement of Secondary Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy at Small Angular Scales The South Pole Telescope bolometer array and the measurement of secondary Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy at small angular scales by Erik D. Shirokoff A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Physics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor William Holzapfel, Chair Professor Bernard Sadoulet Professor Chung-Pei Ma Fall 2011 The South Pole Telescope bolometer array and the measurement of secondary Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy at small angular scales Copyright 2011 by Erik D. Shirokoff 1 Abstract The South Pole Telescope bolometer array and the measurement of secondary Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy at small angular scales by Erik D. Shirokoff Doctor of Philosophy in Physics University of California, Berkeley Professor William Holzapfel, Chair The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a dedicated 10-meter diameter telescope optimized for mm-wavelength surveys of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with arcminute reso- lution. The first instrument deployed at SPT features a 960 element array of horn-coupled bolometers. These devices consist of fully lithographed spider-web absorbers and aluminum- titanium bilayer transition edge sensors fabricated on adhesive-bonded silicon wafers with embedded metal backplanes. The focal plane is cooled using a closed cycle pulse-tube re- frigerator, and read-out using Frequency Domain Multiplexed Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs.) Design features were chosen to optimize sensitivy in the atmospheric observing bands available from the ground, and for stability with the frequency domain multiplexed readout system employed at SPT, and performance was verified with a combination of laboratory tests and field observations. In 2008 the SPT surveyed 200 square-degrees at 150 and 220 GHz. These data have been analyzed using a cross-spectrum analysis and multi-band Markov Chain Monte Carlo parameter fitting using a model that includes lensed primary CMB anisotropy, secondary thermal (tSZ) and kinetic (kSZ) Sunyaev-Zel'dovich anisotropies, unclustered synchrotron point sources, and clustered dusty point sources. In addition to measuring the power spectrum of dusty galaxies at high signal-to-noise, the data primarily constrain a linear combination of the kSZ and tSZ anisotropy contributions (at 150 GHz and ` = 3000): tSZ kSZ 2 D3000 + 0:5 D3000 = 4:5 ± 1:0 µK , and place the lowest limits yet measured on secondary anisotropy power. i To Dennis who taught me how to solder and introduced me to the world of ideas. ii Contents List of Figures vi List of Tables viii I Introduction and scientific motivation 1 1 Concordance cosmology & large scale structure 2 1.1 Introduction . .2 1.2 Concordance cosmology . .3 1.2.1 The ΛCDM world model . .3 1.2.2 Cosmological parameters . .6 1.3 The Cosmic Microwave Background . .7 1.4 Large scale structure . 10 1.4.1 Growth of perturbations . 10 1.4.2 Normalization and σ8 ........................... 13 1.4.3 The mass function . 14 1.4.4 Baryons and large scale structure . 16 1.4.5 The Halo Model . 17 1.4.6 Galaxy cluster halo profiles . 18 1.4.7 Other observables . 20 1.5 The SZ effects . 22 1.6 SZ contributions to the CMB power spectrum . 24 1.6.1 Early SZ results . 24 1.6.2 Recent SZ results . 27 iii 2 The South Pole Telescope 33 2.1 The Telescope . 33 2.2 The Receiver . 35 2.2.1 Optical and Mechanical Design . 35 2.2.2 Frequency Domain Multiplexing . 37 2.2.3 Focal plane modifications . 37 II The South Pole Telescope SZ Camera Detectors 39 3 Transition Edge Sensor bolometers 40 3.1 Introduction . 40 3.2 TES bolometer review . 43 3.2.1 A simple TES model . 43 3.2.2 TES Equations of motion . 44 3.2.3 TES responsivity . 48 3.2.4 TES stability . 50 3.3 TES with BLING . 52 3.4 A TES model with three thermal masses . 55 3.5 TES Sensitivity . 58 3.5.1 Noise Equivalent Power . 58 3.5.2 Photon noise . 59 3.5.3 Thermal carrier noise . 60 3.5.4 Bolometer Johnson Noise . 61 3.5.5 Readout noise . 62 3.5.6 Low frequency noise . 63 3.5.7 Excess noise . 64 3.6 Optimizing thermal properties of real devices . 65 3.6.1 Multi-component thermal links . 65 3.6.2 Tc Optimization . 67 3.7 A summary of TES results . 68 4 Device design and fabrication 72 4.1 Introduction . 72 4.2 The design of SPT devices . 72 4.2.1 Design overview . 72 4.2.2 Reflective back-plane position and wafer bonding . 76 4.3 Fabrication . 77 4.3.1 Low Stress Nitride deposition . 77 4.3.2 Back-plane deposition and wafer bonding . 79 4.3.3 Alternate bonding techniques . 80 iv 4.3.4 TES bilayer . 82 4.3.5 TES and lead fabrication . 85 4.3.6 Gold deposition . 87 4.3.7 LSN Spiderweb . 88 4.3.8 Release of suspended structures . 89 4.3.9 Final photoresist ash and inspection . 91 4.4 Mechanical housing and readout electronics . 92 5 Detector Performance 93 5.1 Introduction . 93 5.2 Device parameters . 93 5.3 Electrothermal response . 96 5.4 Optical Response . 98 5.5 Yield . 101 5.6 Sensitivity and Noise Equivalent Power . 102 5.7 Discussion . 105 III Secondary CMB anisotropies measured with SPT 107 6 CMB Secondary anisotropies 108 6.1 Introduction . 108 6.2 Instrument and Observations . 109 6.2.1 Beam Functions . 110 6.2.2 Calibration . 111 6.3 Analysis . 112 6.3.1 TODs to Maps . 112 6.3.2 Maps to Bandpowers . 113 6.4 Jackknife tests . 116 6.5 Power spectra . 118 6.6 Cosmological model . 118 6.6.1 Primary CMB Anisotropy . 122 6.6.2 Secondary CMB Anisotropy . 122 6.6.3 Foregrounds . 125 6.6.4 Effective frequencies of the SPT bands . 129 6.7 Parameter results . 130 6.7.1 Baseline model results . 130 6.7.2 kSZ variants . 133 6.7.3 Clustered DSFG extensions to the baseline model . 134 6.7.4 tSZ-DSFG correlation . 138 6.7.5 Comparing differenced spectra results to multi-frequency fits . 140 v 6.8 Consequences of the measured tSZ Signal . 144 6.8.1 Thermal SZ amplitude . 144 6.8.2 σ8 Constraints . 148 6.9 Discussion . 151 7 Conclusion 154 vi List of Figures 1.1 CMB primary spectrum . .8 1.2 HOD fits to SDSS data . 18 1.3 SZ map and profile for a massive cluster, A 2744. 24 1.4 Previous measurements of the high-` power spectrum at 30 GHz ....... 26 1.5 tSZ power contribution vs. redshift and mass . 28 1.6 Analytic model for the tSZ power spectrum from Shaw et al. (2010) compared to simulations. 31 2.1 SPT Optical design . 34 2.2 SPT secondary cryostat . 35 2.3 fMUX readout schematic . 37 3.1 A simple model of a TES bolometer.
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