Ishino Lab., Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Okayama University
Siméo Batt from Grenoble INP Phelma has arrived in Okayama as an internship student. He will stay in our laboratory for about three months, during which we will carry out research together.
Associate Professor Shunsuke Adachi of our laboratory gave an invited talk at the 7th International Symposium on Microwave/Terahertz Science and Applications (MTSA 2026). His talk, titled “Searching for Dark Matter with Broadband Millimeter-Wave Receivers,” introduced research on dark matter searches using millimeter-wave receivers.
Conference link: https://mtsa2026.riken.jp/index.html
On Monday, June 8, 2026, Assoc. Prof. Shunsuke Adachi (Graduate School of Environmental, Life, Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University) of our laboratory gave a presentation at the J-PEAKS Symposium “A New Quantum World, Green Energy, and Dark Matter Observation Opened Up by Superconductivity,” held at the 50th Anniversary Hall of Okayama University.
In Presentation 5 (16:50–17:20), Assoc. Prof. Adachi presented his latest research on dark matter searches using superconducting technology. Dark matter accounts for approximately 85% of all matter in the universe, yet its true nature remains unknown. He introduced a unique approach combining radio waves and superconductivity as a means of detecting this elusive substance.
URL: https://www.orsd.okayama-u.ac.jp/topics/j_peaks_symposium/
A research project on radio-wave-based dark matter searches led by Associate Professor Shunsuke Adachi has been selected as a new project for FY2025 under the Fusion Oriented REsearch for disruptive Science and Technology (FOREST) program of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
The project aims to explore the nature of dark matter using advanced radio-frequency measurement techniques. As part of this effort, the research team will develop a new superconducting parametric amplifier to further improve the sensitivity of dark matter searches. This advancement is expected to expand the accessible parameter space and enhance the potential for discovering previously unexplored dark matter candidates.
For more information on the FY2025 selected projects, please visit the JST website:
On April 6, 2026, we held a joint cherry blossom viewing event at Handayama botanical garden together with members of the Yamauchi Laboratory and Nagao Laboratory from Okayama University of Science.
Our new fourth-year students also participated, and while enjoying lunch and the cherry blossoms, we had a valuable opportunity to deepen our interactions with many people beyond the boundaries of our respective laboratories.
We hope to continue valuing these opportunities for interaction and further develop our research activities in the future.
We had welcome party for new members of our laboratry, Komori, Shigeno, Takahara and Tomokuni they have come to from this April, and Mahdi Najafi who is staying from this February. We gathered around the table as a group and were able to get to know the new members better. We hope this will serve as a catalyst for more active communication within the lab.
We are pleased to announce that Higuchi has completed the master’s program, and Fukushima, Ueyama, and Hattori have graduated from the undergraduate program in our laboratory. Higuchi will be joining a company, while Hattori will go on to graduate studies at another university. Fukushima and Ueyama will continue on to graduate school at Okayama University and remain in our laboratory to pursue their research. We sincerely commend all of them for their hard work and achievements, and we look forward to their continued success in the future. Congratulations to everyone.
From April 1 to 2, 2026, Mr. Ikuma (D2), Mr. Kakinoki (M2), Mr. Fukushima (M1), and Ms. Ueyama (M1) gave presentations at the Post-C2C Meeting held at Tokyo Midtown Yaesu.
This meeting was organized to strengthen collaboration within the CMB research community in Japan, building on the achievements of the “CMB Core-to-Core Program” conducted from 2020 to 2024. The event also provided valuable opportunities to interact with researchers from various institutions, making it a highly meaningful experience.
In the dark matter search experiment “DOSUE-RR,” a collaborative research team, including Associate Professor Adachi from our laboratory, has carried out a dark photon search using the millimeter-wave receiver developed in the FINER project (link) at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).
The FINER (Far-Infrared Nebular Emission Receiver) project is an effort to develop a high-sensitivity millimeter-wave receiver based on superconducting SIS mixers. The receiver is designed to be installed on the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT, link) in Mexico for spectroscopic observations of distant galaxies. In this study, the receiver (210–350 GHz) enables a search for dark photons in the mass range of 0.9–1.4 meV.
In this experiment, calibration systems and a readout system ( dSpec ), developed in collaboration with Okayama University, the University of Tsukuba, and Kyoto University, were integrated into the FINER receiver at NAOJ, owing to the collaboration with the FINER team from NAOJ, Nagoya University, and UEC. Observations for dark photon detection commenced on April 6, 2026.
If successful, this measurement is expected to achieve the world’s highest sensitivity in this mass range for dark photon searches. We look forward to future results.
On March 26, 2026, Professor Ishino delivered a presentation titled “Development and Performance Evaluation of an Indium-Target Superconducting Detector” and Nagano (D3) gave a presentation titled “Study on the impact of scan strategy on beam systematics in CMB satellite observations”.
During the question-and-answer session, we received many valuable comments. In addition, by engaging with research in related fields, we were able to gain new insights and perspectives.
We will make use of the outcomes gained from this conference and continue to pursue our research activities with even greater dedication.