A Tunable Resonant Microwave Cavity for the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Engineering/Physics, 2012-13

Liaison(s): Gianpaolo Carosi ’00
Advisor(s): Richard Haskell, Katherine Candler
Students(s): Jean-Claude de Sugny (S), Lorcan McGonigle (F), Tyler Ochiai, Jesse Streitz, Rebecca Streitz, Will Villagomez (TL)

The LLNL Clinic Team has simulated, designed, built, and tested a large-volume, high-frequency resonant microwave cavity to be used in the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX). Multiple conductive tuning posts within the cavity are used to manipulate the characteristic modes of the system, allowing the cavity to potentially detect axions, a possible candidate for dark matter, by tuning the cavity resonant frequency.