Superfluid-tight cryogenic receiver with continuous sub-Kelvin cooling for EXCLAIM

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and testing of a superfluid-tight cryogenic receiver with continuous sub-Kelvin cooling for the balloon-borne EXCLAIM telescope, enabling high-sensitivity intensity mapping of star formation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel cryogenic receiver system with continuous sub-Kelvin cooling and superfluid-tight design for space-based intensity mapping instruments.

Findings

Successful flight-like testing of the receiver components.

Demonstrated stable sub-Kelvin cooling with CADR.

Effective superfluid-tight enclosure for cryogenic operation.

Abstract

The EXperiment for Cryogenic Large-Aperture Intensity Mapping (EXCLAIM) is a balloon-borne telescope designed to survey star formation over cosmological time scales using intensity mapping in the 420 - 540 GHz frequency range. EXCLAIM uses a fully cryogenic telescope coupled to six on-chip spectrometers featuring kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) to achieve high sensitivity, allowing for fast integration in dark atmospheric windows. The telescope receiver is cooled to $\approx$ 1.7 K by immersion in a superfluid helium bath and enclosed in a superfluid-tight shell with a meta-material anti-reflection coated silicon window. In addition to the optics and the spectrometer package, the receiver contains the magnetic shielding, the cryogenic segment of the spectrometer readout, and the sub-Kelvin cooling system. A three-stage continuous adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (CADR) keeps the detectors at 100 mK while a $^4$He sorption cooler provides a 900 mK thermal intercept for mechanical suspensions and coaxial cables. We present the design of the EXCLAIM receiver and report on the flight-like testing of major receiver components, including the superfluid-tight receiver window and the sub-Kelvin coolers.