Split-cavity tuning of a rectangular axion haloscope operating around 8.4 GHz

The axion haloscope is the currently most sensitive method to probe the vanishingly small coupling of this prominent Dark Matter candidate to photons. To scan a sizeable axion Dark Matter parameter space, the cavities that make up the haloscope need to be tuned efficiently. In this article, we describe a novel technique to tune axion haloscopes around 8.4 GHz in a purely mechanical manner without the use of dielectrics. We achieve tuning by introducing a gap along the cavity geometry. A quality factor reduction of less than 20% is achieved experimentally for a tuning range of around 600 MHz at room temperature and at cryogenic temperatures for around 300 MHz. A larger tuning range would require an improved alignments mechanism. We present the results of a corresponding prototype and outline prospects to further develop this technique.