UC Berkeley

POLARBEAR is a Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization experiment that will measure the CMB polarization angular power spectrum with unprecedented precision, searching for evidence of inflationary gravitational waves and the gravitational lensing of the CMB polarization by large scale structure. This dissertation presents an overview of the design of the instrument, focusing on the design and fabrication of the focal plane, and presents the results of some tests of instrument performance, both in the laboratory and from the initial engineering deployment.

The structure of this thesis is as follows: Chapter 1 introduces the theoretical constructs used to describe the CMB polarization anisotropies, and the state of measurements in the field. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the choices made in the instrument design. Chapter 3 discusses the fundamental limits to the sensitivity of bolometric detectors, and chapter 4 explains the design choices involved in populating the focal plane with detectors. Chapter 5 describes the details of the detector architecture and fabrication, and chapter 6 the details of selecting the spectral band of the detectors. Finally, chapter 7 goes through some results obtained before and during the POLARBEAR engineering run in 2010, and comments on the work to be done before the Chilean deployment.