Superconducting cameras to photograph the Big Bang

This follows the signing of an agreement between Oxford Instruments and the Astrophysics Group of the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

The 20-year agreement combines two of the UK's leading superconducting detector groups and their complementary areas of expertise to establish a new single low-temperature electronics facility to be located at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge.

The facility will allow the combined team to create a new generation of analytical techniques for the physical and biological sciences. The team will develop advanced superconducting detectors, superconducting microchips, and optical components for the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Steve McQuillan, Managing Director of Oxford Instruments Superconductivity said, "This agreement is of international significance since it brings together world class skills to work synergistically to advance superconducting detectors."

Dr Stafford Withington of Cambridge University's Astrophysics Group, who will be leading the new laboratory added, "By combining Oxford Instruments' internationally recognised expertise in superconducting thin film technology with my existing team's expertise at submillimetre-wave and THz wavelengths, we will be in an exciting position to support the activities of many different international organisations."

He continued, "for example, submillimetre-wave and THz superconducting electronics for the Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council, optical and x-ray superconducting detectors for the European Space Agency and the European Southern Observatory. In due course, cameras developed in the new laboratory will be used at locations as diverse as the South Pole, the Chilean Atacama Desert, and in space.

Under the terms of the agreement Oxford Instruments' Cambridge-based Thin Films team, which has been working on superconducting detectors for over 15 years, will transfer to the University, which has also been working in this area for many years. In addition, the Company will license its Intellectual Property and endow the University with approximately £1 million of equipment used for fabricating and testing these devices.

This will complement the infrastructure provided by a recent £3.5 million Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF) grant to the University, which is administered by the Higher Education Funding Council.

According to Craig Marshall, Corporate Development Project Manager at Oxford Instruments, "This deal represents a truly mutually beneficial agreement, Cambridge University has all the right credentials to incubate this technology to realise both academic and commercial objectives.

By licensing its Intellectual Property in this area, Oxford Instruments will benefit from a royalty stream from any future commercial developments arising from the new facility."

Photo: Michael Cameron