We present first results and future plans for the Oscillating Resonant Group AxioN (ORGAN) experiment, a microwave cavity axion haloscope situated in Perth, Western Australia designed to probe for high mass axions motivated by several theoretical models. The first stage focuses around 26.6 GHz in order to directly test a claimed result, which suggests axions exist at the corresponding mass of 110 µeV. Later stages will move to a wider scan range of 15-50 GHz (60 − 210 µeV). We present the results of the pathfinding run, which sets a limit on g aγγ of 2.02 × 10 −12 eV −1 at 26.531 GHz, or 110 µeV, in a span of 2.5 neV (shaped by the Lorentzian resonance) with 90% confidence. Furthermore, we outline the current design and future strategies to eventually attain the sensitivity to search for well known axion models over the wider mass range.

Resonant photon modes of a 5mm diameter YIG sphere loaded in a cylindrical cavity in the 10-30GHz frequency range are characterised as a function of applied DC magnetic field at millikelvin temperatures. The photon modes are confined mainly to the sphere, and exhibited large mode filling factors in comparison to previous experiments, allowing ultrastrong coupling with the magnon spin wave resonances. The largest observed coupling between photons and magnons is 2g/2π = 7.11 GHz for a 15.5 GHz mode, corresponding to a cooperativity of C = 1.51±0.47×10 7 . Complex modifications beyond a simple multi-oscillator model, of the photon mode frequencies were observed between 0 and 0.1 Tesla. Between 0.4 to 1 Tesla, degenerate resonant photon modes were observed to interact with magnon spin wave resonances with different couplings strengths, indicating time reversal symmetry breaking due to the gyrotropic permeability of YIG. Bare dielectric resonator mode frequencies were determined by detuning magnon modes to significantly higher frequencies with strong magnetic fields. By comparing measured mode frequencies at 7 Tesla with Finite Element modelling, a bare dielectric permittivity of 15.96 ± 0.02 of the YIG crystal has been determined at about 20mK.

With the axion being a prime candidate for dark matter, there has been some recent interest in direct detection through a so called 'Ferromagnetic haloscope.' Such devices exploit the coupling between axions and electrons in the form of collective spin excitations of magnetic materials with the readout through a microwave cavity. Here, we present a new, general, theoretical treatment of such experiments in a Hamiltonian formulation for strongly coupled magnons and photons, which hybridise as cavity-magnon polaritons. Such strongly coupled systems have an extended measurable dispersive regime. Thus, we extend the analysis and operation of such experiments into the dispersive regime, which allows any ferromagnetic haloscope to achieve improved bandwidth with respect to the axion mass parameter space. This experiment was implemented in a cryogenic setup, and initial search results are presented setting laboratory limits on the axion-electron coupling strength of g aee > 3.7 × 10 −9 in the range 33.79 µeV< m a < 33.94 µeV with 95% confidence. The potential bandwidth of the Ferromagnetic haloscope was calculated to be in two bands, the first of about 1 GHz around 8.24 GHz (or 4.1 µeV mass range around 34.1 µeV) and the second of about 1.6 GHz around 10 GHz (6.6 µeV mass range around 41.4 µeV). Frequency tuning may also be easily achieved via an external magnetic field which changes the ferromagnetic resonant frequency with respect to the cavity frequency. The requirements necessary for future improvements to reach the DFSZ axion model band are discussed in the paper.