No Arabic abstract
Extremely radiation hard sensors are needed in particle physics experiments to instrument the region near the beam pipe. Examples are beam halo and beam loss monitors at the Large Hadron Collider, FLASH or XFEL. Currently artificial diamond sensors are widely used. In this paper single crystal sapphire sensors are considered as a promising alternative. Industrially grown sapphire wafers are available in large sizes, are of low cost and, like diamond sensors, can be operated without cooling. Here we present results of an irradiation study done with sapphire sensors in a high intensity low energy electron beam. Then, a multichannel direction-sensitive sapphire detector stack is described. It comprises 8 sapphire plates of 1 cm^2 size and 525 micro m thickness, metallized on both sides, and apposed to form a stack. Each second metal layer is supplied with a bias voltage, and the layers in between are connected to charge-sensitive preamplifiers. The performance of the detector was studied in a 5 GeV electron beam. The charge collection efficiency measured as a function of the bias voltage rises with the voltage, reaching about 10 % at 950 V. The signal size obtained from electrons crossing the stack at this voltage is about 22000 e, where e is the unit charge. The signal size is measured as a function of the hit position, showing variations of up to 20 % in the direction perpendicular to the beam and to the electric field. The measurement of the signal size as a function of the coordinate parallel to the electric field confirms the prediction that mainly electrons contribute to the signal. Also evidence for the presence of a polarisation field was observed.
We show data from a new type of detector that can be used to determine neutron flux, energy distribution, and direction of neutron motion for both fast and thermal neutrons. Many neutron detectors are plagued by large backgrounds from x-rays and gamma rays, and most current neutron detectors lack single-event energy sensitivity or any information on neutron directionality. Even the best detectors are limited by cosmic ray neutron backgrounds. All applications (neutron scattering and radiography, measurements of solar and cosmic ray neutron flux, measurements of neutron interaction cross sections, monitoring of neutrons at nuclear facilities, oil exploration, and searches for fissile weapons of mass destruction) will benefit from the improved neutron detection sensitivity and improved measurements of neutron properties made possible by this detector. The detector is free of backgrounds from x-rays, gamma rays, beta particles, relativistic singely charged particles and cosmic ray neutrons. It is sensitive to thermal neutrons, fission neutrons, and high energy neutrons, with detection features distinctive for each energy range. It is capable of determining the location of a source of fission neutrons based on characteristics of elastic scattering of neutrons by helium nuclei. The detector we have constructed could identify one gram of reactor grade plutonium, one meter away, with less than one minute of observation time.
The Belle-II experiment and superKEKB accelerator will form a next generation B-factory at KEK, capable of running at an instantaneous luminosity 40 times higher than the Belle detector and KEKB. This will allow for the elucidation of many facets of the Standard Model by performing precision measurements of its parameters, and provide sensitivity to many rare decays that are currently inaccessible. This will require major upgrades to both the accelerator and detector subsystems. The imaging Time-of-propagation (iTOP) detector will be a new subdetector of Belle-II that will perform an integral role in Particle identification (PID). It will comprise 16 modules between the tracking detectors and calorimeter; each module consisting of a quartz radiator, approximately 2.5m in length, instrumented with an array of 32 micro-channel plate photodetectors (MCP-PMTs). The passage of charged particles through the quartz will produce a cone of Cherenkov photons that will propagate along the length of the quartz, and be detected by the MCP-PMTs. The excellent spatial, and timing resolution (of 50 picoseconds) of the iTOP system will provide superior particle identification capabilities, particularly allowing for enhanced discrimination between pions and kaons that will be essential for many of the key measurements to performed. The status of the construction of the iTOP subdetector, and performance studies of prototypes at beam tests will be presented, together with prospects for physics measurements that will utilise the PID capabilities of the iTOP system.
We are developing position sensitive silicon detectors (PSDs) which have an electrode at each of four corners so that incident position of a charged particle can be obtained with signal from the electrodes. It is expected that the position resolution of the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) of the ILD detector will be improved by introducing PSDs to detection layers. We have been developing the PSDs for several years. In the previous production we found that the charge separation is not optimally done due to the readout impedance. To solve the issue, we produced new PSDs with higher surface resistance with an additional resistive layer on the surface. We also implemented several techniques to decrease position distortion and increase signal-to-noise ratio which are essential for the optimal position resolution. The measurements on the prototype sensors are ongoing, including radiation source measurement and laser measurement using an ASIC for silicon pad detectors.
On October 5/6, 2017, DESY hosted the first DESY Test Beam User Workshop [1] which took place in Hamburg. Fifty participants from different user communities, ranging from LHC (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb) to FAIR (CBM, PANDA), DUNE, Belle-II, future linear colliders (ILC, CLIC) and generic detector R&D presented their experiences with the DESY II Test Beam Facility, their concrete plans for the upcoming years and a first estimate of their needs for beam time in the long-term future beyond 2025. A special focus was also on additional improvements to the facility beyond its current capabilities.
The ArgoNeuT liquid argon time projection chamber has collected thousands of neutrino and antineutrino events during an extended run period in the NuMI beam-line at Fermilab. This paper focuses on the main aspects of the detector layout and related technical features, including the cryogenic equipment, time projection chamber, read-out electronics, and off-line data treatment. The detector commissioning phase, physics run, and first neutrino event displays are also reported. The characterization of the main working parameters of the detector during data-taking, the ionization electron drift velocity and lifetime in liquid argon, as obtained from through-going muon data complete the present report.