Design and operational experience of a microwave cavity axion detector for the 20-100 μeV range

We describe a dark matter axion detector designed, constructed, and operated both as an innovation platform for new cavity and amplifier technologies and as a data pathfinder in the 5-25 GHz range ( similar to 20-100 mu eV). The platform is small but flexible to facilitate the development of new microwave cavity and amplifier concepts in an operational environment. The experiment has recently completed its first data production; it is the first microwave cavity axion search to deploy a Josephson parametric amplifier and a dilution refrigerator to achieve near-quantum limited performance.