Mazin Lab, led by Professor Ben Mazin, is a part of the Department of Physics at UCSB. We are focused on using a unique detector technology called Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) for astronomy, biophysics, and particle physics in the near infrared, optical, and ultraviolet. MKIDs allow us to determine the energy and arrival time of individual photons without read noise or dark current. The applications of this technology spans a wide range of vital research areas, including detecting Earth-like planets around nearby stars, determining the redshift of billions of galaxies, detecting light scalar dark matter, and imaging developing cells.
Top Left: A 20,440 pixel Optical/near-IR MKID Array. Top Right: On-sky diffraction limited 950-1350 nm and SSD map from MEC of a companion to HIP 109427. Bottom Left: A microscope image of a MKID. Bottom Right: DARKNESS being mounted to the Palomar 200" Hale Telescope cass cage.
News:
April, 2021: Graduate Student Hawkins Clay received the NSTGRO fellowship.
December, 2020: The MEC instrument paper is now published in PASP. Press release here.
April, 2020: Mazin Lab undergraduate researcher Clarissa Rizzo was awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship
March, 2020: Mazin Lab awarded a grant for exoplanet direct imaging technology from the Heising-Simons Foundation.
July, 2019: New Air and Space Magazine article on MKIDs
April, 2019: Graduate Student Jenny Smith awarded the NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship
March, 2019: Watch Professor Mazin's presentation at the Amazon MARS conference
March, 2019: Graduate Student Alex Walter accepted a NASA Postdoctoral Progream (NPP) Fellowship at JPL
April, 2018: DARKNESS commissioning paper published in PASP. Press release here.
March, 2018: MEC is installed at the Subaru Telescope
August, 2017: Professor Ben Mazin has been awarded the Worster Chair in Experimental Physics
July, 2017: Graduate Student Clint Bockstiegel honored with the IEEE Council on Superconductivity Graduate Study Fellowship
May, 2017: 2017 Ph.D. Seth Meeker received a NASA NPP at JPL, but declined it for a JPL Staff Position
May, 2017: 2017 Ph.D. Paul Szypryt received a NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (NPP) at NIST Boulder
April, 2017: Graduate Student Nicholas Zobrist Awarded a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship
March, 2017: Graduate Student Isabel Lipartito awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
July 21, 2016: First light of the DARKNESS camera!
Office: Broida Hall 2015H
Lab: Broida Hall 3509
Phone/Fax: (805)893-3344
Shipping:
Department of Physics
Bldg. 572 Room 1311
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA
