Detecting Light Dark Matter with Kinetic Inductance Detectors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs), originally used for infrared astronomy, can detect extremely low-energy interactions, enabling new dark matter searches and setting novel constraints.

Contribution

The study shows that existing KIDs can achieve thresholds as low as 0.2 eV for dark matter detection, highlighting their potential for scalable, low-threshold dark matter experiments.

Findings

KIDs can reach energy thresholds of 0.2 eV.

Existing data sets new constraints on light dark matter.

KIDs are scalable for future dark matter searches.

Abstract

Superconducting detectors are a promising technology for probing dark matter at extremely low masses, where dark matter interactions are currently unconstrained. Realizing the potential of such detectors requires new readout technologies to achieve the lowest possible thresholds for deposited energy. Here we perform a prototype search for dark matter--electron interactions with kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs), a class of superconducting detector originally designed for infrared astronomy applications. We demonstrate that existing KIDs can achieve effective thresholds as low as 0.2 eV, and we use existing data to set new dark matter constraints. The relative maturity of the technology underlying KIDs means that this platform can be scaled significantly with existing tools, enabling powerful new searches in the coming years.