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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

μRWELL detector developments at Jefferson Lab for high luminosity experiments

One of the future plans at Jefferson Lab is running electron scattering experiments with large acceptance detectors at luminosities > 10^37 cm^−2 s^−1. These experiments allow the measurements of the Double Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DDVCS) reaction, an important physics process in the formalism of Generalized Parton Distributions, which has never been measured because of its small cross-section. The luminosity upgrade of CLAS12 or the SOLID detector makes Jefferson Lab a unique place to measure DDVCS. One of the important components of these high luminosity detectors is a tracking system that can withstand high rates of ≈ 1MHz/cm2. The recently developed Micro-Resistive Well (𝜇RWELL) detector technology is a promising option for such a tracking detector by combining good position resolutions, low material budget with simple mechanical construction, and low production costs. In this proceeding, we will discuss recent developments and studies with 𝜇RWELL detectors at Jefferson Lab for future upgrades of the CLAS12 detector to study the DDVCS reaction.

Hauenstein, Florian↗
DOE OSTI2023

High Performance Pd/4H-SiC Epitaxial Schottky Barrier Radiation Detectors for Harsh Environment Applications

Although many refractory metals have been investigated as the choice of contact metal in 4H-SiC devices, palladium (Pd) as a Schottky barrier contact for 4H-SiC radiation detectors for harsh environment applications has not been investigated adequately. Pd is a refractory metal with high material weight-to-thickness ratio and a work function as high as nickel, one of the conventional metal contacts for high performing 4H-SiC Schottky barrier detectors (SBDs). In this article, Pd/4H-SiC epitaxial SBDs have been demonstrated for the first time as a superior self-biased (0 V applied bias) radiation detector when compared to benchmark Ni/4H-SiC SBDs. The Pd/4H-SiC SBD radiation detectors showed a very high energy resolution of 1.9% and 0.49% under self- and optimized bias, respectively, for 5486 keV alpha particles. The SBDs demonstrated a built-in voltage (V bi ) of 2.03 V and a hole diffusion length (L d ) of 30.8 µm. Such high V bi and L d led to an excellent charge collection efficiency of 76% in the self-biased mode. Capacitance mode deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) results revealed that the “lifetime-killer” Z 1/2 trap centers were present in the 4H-SiC epilayer. Another deep level trap was located at 1.09 eV below the conduction band minimum and resembles the EH5 trap with a concentration of 1.98 × 10 11 cm –3 and capture cross-section 1.7 × 10 –17 cm –2 ; however, the detector performance was found to be limited by charge trapping in the Z 1/2 center. The results presented in this article revealed the unexplored potential of a wide bandgap semiconductor, SiC, as high-efficiency self-biased radiation detectors. Such high performance self-biased radiation detectors are poised to address the longstanding problem of designing self-powered sensor devices for harsh environment applications e.g., advanced nuclear reactors and deep space missions.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Conceptual Design Report for the MATHUSLA Long-Lived Particle Detector near CMS

We present the Conceptual Design Report (CDR) for the MATHUSLA (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra-Stable neutraL pArticles) long-lived particle detector at the HL-LHC, covering the design, fabrication and installation at CERN Point 5. MATHUSLA is a 40 m-scale detector with an air-filled decay volume that is instrumented with scintillator tracking detectors, to be located near CMS. Its large size, close proximity to the CMS interaction point and about 100 m of rock shielding from HL-LHC backgrounds allows it to detect LLP production rates and lifetimes that are one to two orders of magnitude beyond the ultimate sensitivity of the HL-LHC main detectors for many highly motivated LLP signals. Data taking is projected to commence with the start of HL-LHC operations. We present a new 40m design for the detector: its individual scintillator bars and wavelength-shifting fibers, their organization into tracking layers, tracking modules, tower modules and the veto detector; define a high-level design for the supporting electronics, DAQ and trigger system, including supplying a hardware trigger signal to CMS to record the LLP production event; outline computing systems, civil engineering and safety considerations; and present preliminary cost estimates and timelines for the project. We also conduct detailed simulation studies of the important cosmic ray and HL-LHC muon backgrounds, implementing full track/vertex reconstruction and background rejection, to ultimately demonstrate high signal efficiency and $\ll 1$ background event in realistic LLP searches for the main physics targets at MATHUSLA. This sensitivity is robust with respect to detector design or background simulation details. Appendices provide various supplemental information.

Aitken, Branden [Victoria U.]↗
DOE OSTI2025

Diffractive Physics Program at the Electron–Ion Collider’s (EIC) 2 nd Detector

The Electron–Ion Collider (EIC) will be a novel experimental facility to explore the properties of gluons in nucleons and nuclei, shedding light on their structure and dynamics. The EIC community outlined the physics program of the EIC in a White Paper, and the demanding detector re quirements and potential technologies to deploy at an EIC detector were published in a comprehensive Yellow Report. The general-purpose detector resulting from these efforts, ePIC, is designed to perform a broad physics program. At the same time, the wider EIC community is strongly in favor of a second detector at the EIC. Having two general-purpose collider detec tors to support the EIC science program allows us to have cross-checks and control of systematic uncertainties for potential scientific discoveries. The second detector should feature complementary technologies where possible. It can also focus on specific measurements that are less well-addressed by ePIC. The second interaction region provides potentially improved forward detector acceptance at low pT and a secondary beam focus that enables to enhance the exclusive, tagging, and diffractive physics program. Hereby, I will present the potential capabilities of the second detector and discuss studies related to its diffractive physics program.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Measuring Neutrino Oscillations in the NOvA and CHIPS Detectors.

NOvA is a long baseline neutrino experiment which uses muon neutrinos produced by the NuMI beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to measure muon neutrino disappearance and electron neutrino appearance, among other analyses. The Far/Near Extrapolation analysis framework (FNEX) was used to measure muon neutrino disappearance using the events observed by NOvA while the NuMI beam was in Forward Horn Current configuration (i.e. this analysis uses neutrino data, not antineutrino data). The values of the parameters measured in this analysis are sin 2 θ 23 - 0.499$^{+0.098}_{-0.069}$ and Δm$^2_{32}$ - 2.454$^{+0.108}_{0.119}$ × 10 -3 eV, which is consistent with the results of NOvA’s main muon neutrino disappearance analysis using the experiment’s usual framework, known as CAF. The CHIPS detector is a water Cherenkov detector currently in construction. It will also use the NuMI beam to perform muon neutrino disappearance and electron neutrino appearance analyses. The necessary water clarity for a detector with a diameter of 25 m and a height of 6 m is discussed, as well as the results of testing water filtration systems. The filtration that will be used for the detector is a 10 µm carbon block filter and a 0.5 µm filter in series, with no reverse osmosis or ultraviolet sterilisation being used. This provides an attenuation length of 16.63 ± 0.25 m for light of 532 nm wavelength (green), so light with a wavelength of 405 nm (violet) would have an attenuation length of 133±2 m. The greatest possible distance between a PMT and any point in the detector’s volume is approximately 26 m, so 133 m is sufficient for the detector to measure Cherenkov light produced anywhere in the detector.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Convolutional Neural Networks for the CHIPS Neutrino Detector R&D Project.

The CHerenkov detectors In mine PitS (Chips) neutrino detector R&D project aims to develop novel strategies and technologies for very large yet ‘cheap as chips’ water Cherenkov neutrino detectors. Via deployment in a body of water, use of commercially available components, and instrumentation coverage optimisation for the study of exclusively accelerator beam neutrinos, Chips will enable megaton scale detectors to become a reality at the cost of $200k-$300k per kt of sensitive mass. During the summer of 2019 a prototype Chips detector, Chips-5, was deployed into the Wentworth 2W disused mine pit in northern Minnesota, 7 mrad off the NuMI beam axis. A novel data acquisition system was introduced using cheap single-board computers and open-source software. This work presents a novel approach to water Cherenkov neutrino detector event reconstruction and classification. Three forms of a Convolutional Neural Network, a type of deep learning algorithm, have been trained to reject cosmic muon events, classify beam events, and estimate neutrino energies, all using only the raw detector event as input. When evaluated on the expected distribution of Chips-5 events, this new approach is shown to be robust and explainable as well as providing a significant performance increase over the standard likelihood-based reconstruction and simple neural network classification. Promisingly, the performance presented here is comparable to the more complex (and expensive) neutrino oscillation experiments within the field.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Single detector laser-induced fluorescence imager and raman spectral instrument

Apparatus include divergence optics removably coupled to receive a probe beam in a first imaging mode to cause the probe beam to diverge before impinging on a first area of a target surface, and to not receive the probe beam in a second imaging mode to cause the probe beam to impinge on a second area of the target surface smaller than the first area, collection optics configured to receive, in response to the probe beam, luminescence light emitted from the first area and spectral light emitted from the second area, and an optical detector coupled to the collection optics, wherein the optical detector includes a luminescence imaging detector portion and a spectral imaging detector portion adjacent to the luminescence imaging detector portion, wherein the luminescence imaging detector portion is configured to receive the luminescence light emitted from the first area and the spectral imaging detector portion is configured to receive the spectral light from the second area.

Gasda, Patrick J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Detector R&D needs for the next generation $e^+e^-$ collider

The 2021 Snowmass Energy Frontier panel wrote in its final report "The realization of a Higgs factory will require an immediate, vigorous and targeted detector R&D program". Both linear and circular $e^+e^-$ collider efforts have developed a conceptual design for their detectors and are aggressively pursuing a path to formalize these detector concepts. The U.S. has world-class expertise in particle detectors, and is eager to play a leading role in the next generation $e^+e^-$ collider, currently slated to become operational in the 2040s. It is urgent that the U.S. organize its efforts to provide leadership and make significant contributions in detector R&D. These investments are necessary to build and retain the U.S. expertise in detector R&D and future projects, enable significant contributions during the construction phase and maintain its leadership in the Energy Frontier regardless of the choice of the collider project. In this document, we discuss areas where the U.S. can and must play a leading role in the conceptual design and R&D for detectors for $e^+e^-$ colliders.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

Simulating the Phonon Collection Efficiency in Kinetic Inductance Phonon-Mediated Detectors

Kinetic inductance phonon-mediated (KIPM) detectors use microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) to read out phonon signals in the substrate. They are a promising class of detectors to be used in light dark matter (DM) searches due to their potential eV-scale sensitivity and native frequency-domain multiplexability. In order to improve upon the design of these detectors, simulations are needed to understand the effects of detector design on measurable physical parameters including the phonon collection efficiency, $\eta_{ph}$, which is defined as the ratio of phonon energy detected by the sensitive target element to the incident energy deposited in the substrate. This work simulates the phonon collection efficiency for two existing detector architectures to study phonon absorption at substrate-sensor interfaces and phonon loss to non-sensitive detector elements.

Dang, Stella Q.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Muon Time-of-Flight studies for cosmic background rejection in the Short Baseline Near Detector

The Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program at Fermilab is a cutting-edge project in experimental neutrino physics. One of its main goals is to systematically investigate the possible existence of eV-scale sterile neutrinos. This phenomenon has been hypothesized to explain some anomalies found in short-range experiments and, if confirmed, would imply a substantial extension of the Standard Model. SBN also offers an important opportunity to deepen the understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions in the GeV energy range, through the use of Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPC) detectors, a fundamental technology also for the future DUNE experiment. The SBN experimental infrastructure consists of three detectors aligned along the Booster Neutrino Beamline at Fermilab. Among them, the detector located closest to the neutrino source, SBND (Short-Baseline Near Detector), positioned approximately 110 meters from the target, plays a key role in directly characterizing the initial neutrino flux. This allows for a direct comparison with the measurements from the far detector, ICARUS, located about 600 meters from the source, in order to search for potential signs of anomalous neutrino oscillations. My master's thesis focuses on the commissioning and characterization activities of the SBND detector, with particular reference to the Cosmic Ray Tagger (CRT). The CRT is a subsystem for identifying and rejecting events produced by cosmic rays, which constitute the main source of background for surface experiments like SBND. The activity began with the commissioning of the final components of the detector, as well as their validation to verify their correct functioning and signal acquisition. A central part of my work involved studying the veto efficiency of the CRT system, analyzing the rate of cosmic ray-induced events to quantify any loss of neutrino-induced events caused by cosmic background. This allowed for a more precise evaluation of the systematic impact of the CRT on the useful physics sample. A further phase of my analysis involved an in-depth study of the temporal correlation between the CRT signals and those acquired by the LArTPC's internal photodetector system, consisting of photomultiplier tubes and X-ARAPUCA devices. The objective is to explore the possibility of using combined temporal information as an additional criterion for discriminating between cosmic signals and signals genuinely due to neutrino interaction. Preliminary results indicate the presence of characteristic temporal signatures that could be exploited to improve event selection and increase the purity of the neutrino-induced sample. These methodologies will certainly contribute to the optimization of SBND analysis strategies and, more generally, to a better understanding of background mechanisms in next-generation LArTPC experiments.

Corallo, Annalea [Ferrara U.]↗
DOE OSTI2020

Layout and performance of HPK prototype LGAD sensors for the High-Granularity Timing Detector

The High-Granularity Timing Detector is a detector proposed for the ATLAS Phase II upgrade. The detector, based on the Low-Gain Avalanche Detector (LGAD) technology, will cover the pseudo-rapidity region of 2.4 < |n| < 4.0 with two end caps on each side and a total area of 6.4 m 2 . The timing performance can be improved by implanting an internal gain layer that can produce signals with a fast rising edge. It significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio. The required average timing resolution per track for a minimum ionizing particle is 30 ps at the start and 50 ps at the end of the HL-LHC operation. This is achieved with several layers of LGAD. The innermost region of the detector would accumulate a 1MeV neutron-equivalent fluence up to 2.5 10 15 n eq /cm 2 including a safety factor of 1.5 before being replaced during the scheduled shutdowns. The addition of this new detector is expected to play an important role in the mitigation of high pile-ups at the HL-LHC. The layout and performance of the various versions of LGAD prototypes produced by Hamamatsu (HPK) have been studied by the ATLAS Collaboration. The breakdown voltages, depletion voltages, inter-pad gaps, collected charge as well as the time resolution have been measured and the production yield of large size sensors has been evaluated.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Electron/hadron separation with the TRD based on GaAs pixel detectors

Transition Radiation Detectors (TRDs) are widely used for particle identification in both high-energy physics and astroparticle physics. They are typically equipped with gaseous detectors. The main limitation of these types of detectors is that TR photons and ionization losses cannot be decoupled, which significantly reduces the particle separation power. Recent advancements in the development of pixel detectors based on GaAs sensors offer a unique opportunity to effectively detect TR photons and separate them from ionization losses. Such detectors represent novel devices that combine precise tracking capabilities with particle identification (PID) properties. The present work is dedicated to an experimental study of particle identification properties of the TRD prototype based on 500 μ m-thick GaAs sensor bonded to a Timepix3 chip. Studies were performed at the CERN SPS and it was shown that at a particle momentum of 20 GeV/c, the probability of misidentifying a hadron as an electron is below 10 −2 for an electron detection efficiency of 98%–99%, and it is 1 . 6⋅10 −4 for electron detection efficiency of 90%. This performance surpasses the electron/hadron rejection power of all known TRDs by an order of magnitude for the same detector length.

GaAs detectors↗
DOE OSTI2021

2D perovskite-based high spatial resolution X-ray detectors

Abstract X-ray radiography is the most widely used imaging technique with applications encompassing medical and industrial imaging, homeland security, and materials research. Although a significant amount of research and development has gone into improving the spatial resolution of the current state-of-the-art indirect X-ray detectors, it is still limited by the detector thickness and microcolumnar structure quality. This paper demonstrates high spatial resolution X-ray imaging with solution-processable two-dimensional hybrid perovskite single-crystal scintillators grown inside microcapillary channels as small as 20 µm. These highly scalable non-hygroscopic detectors demonstrate excellent spatial resolution similar to the direct X-ray detectors. X-ray imaging results of a camera constructed using this scintillator show Modulation Transfer Function values significantly better than the current state-of-the-art X-ray detectors. These structured detectors open up a new era of low-cost large-area ultrahigh spatial resolution high frame rate X-ray imaging with numerous applications.

2D perovskite↗
DOE OSTI2020

Design and performance of a 35-ton liquid argon time projection chamber as a prototype for future very large detectors

Liquid argon time projection chamber technology is an attractive choice for large neutrino detectors, as it provides a high-resolution active target and it is expected to be scalable to very large masses. Consequently, it has been chosen as the technology for the first module of the DUNE far detector. However, the fiducial mass required for “far detectors” of the next generation of neutrino oscillation experiments far exceeds what has been demonstrated so far. Scaling to this larger mass, as well as the requirement for underground construction places a number of additional constraints on the design. A prototype 35-ton cryostat was built at Fermi National Acccelerator Laboratory to test the functionality of the components foreseen to be used in a very large far detector. The Phase I run, completed in early 2014, demonstrated that liquid argon could be maintained at sufficient purity in a membrane cryostat. A time projection chamber was installed for the Phase II run, which collected data in February and March of 2016. The Phase II run was a test of the modular anode plane assemblies with wrapped wires, cold readout electronics, and integrated photon detection systems. While the details of the design do not match exactly those chosen for the DUNE far detector, the 35-ton TPC prototype is a demonstration of the functionality of the basic components. Measurements are performed using the Phase II data to extract signal and noise characteristics and to align the detector components. A measurement of the electron lifetime is presented, and a novel technique for measuring a track's position based on pulse properties is described.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

AI-optimized detector design for the future Electron-Ion Collider: the dual-radiator RICH case

Advanced detector R&D requires performing computationally intensive and detailed simulations as part of the detector-design optimization process. Here, we propose a general approach to this process based on Bayesian optimization and machine learning that encodes detector requirements. As a case study, we focus on the design of the dual-radiator Ring Imaging Cherenkov (dRICH) detector under development as a potential component of the particle-identification system at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The EIC is a US-led frontier accelerator project for nuclear physics, which has been proposed to further explore the structure and interactions of nuclear matter at the scale of sea quarks and gluons. We show that the detector design obtained with our automated and highly parallelized framework outperforms the baseline dRICH design within the assumptions of the current model. Our technique can be applied to any detector R&D, provided that realistic simulations are available.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Performance study of charcoal-based radon reduction systems for ultraclean rare event detectors

The continuous emanation of radon due to trace amounts of uranium and thorium in detector materials introduces radon to the active detection volume of low-background rare event search detectors. 222 Rn produces a particularly problematic background in the physics region of interest by the "naked" beta decay of its 214 Pb daughter nucleus. While charcoal-based adsorption traps are expected to be effective for radon reduction in auxiliary circulation loops that service the warm components of current ton-scale detectors at slow flow rates (0.5-2 SLPM), radon reduction in the entire circulation loop at high flow rates $\mathcal{O}$(100s SLPM) is necessary to reach high sensitivity in future generation experiments. In this article we explore radon dynamics with a charcoal-based radon reduction system in the main circulation loop of time projection chamber detectors. Here, we find that even for perfect radon traps, circulation speeds of 2,000 SLPM are needed to reduce radon concentration in a 10 ton detector by 90%. This is faster by a factor of four than the highest circulation speeds currently achieved in dark matter detectors. We further find that the effectiveness of vacuum swing adsorption systems, which have been employed very successfully at reducing atmospheric radon levels in clean-rooms, is limited by the intrinsic radon activity of the charcoal adsorbent in ultra-low radon environments. Adsorbents with significantly lower intrinsic radon activity than in currently available activated charcoals would be necessary to build effective vacuum swing adsorption systems operated at room temperature for rare event search experiments. If such VSA systems are cooled to about 190 K, this requirement relaxes drastically.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Photon calibration techniques for high resolution cryogenic detectors

Monoenergetic photons from a pulsed laser diode or LED are commonly used to calibrate the detector response of high-resolution calorimetric detectors. However, when the detector’s resolution is larger than the energy of a single photon, a calibration is normally derived using Poisson statistics. In this paper, we clarify the assumptions implicit in this calibration method, before considering how a more realistic model of a detector’s performance will violate these assumptions, biasing the calibration. Lastly, we judge the individual impact of specific detector parameters on our calibration, and conclude with discussion of both the limits of our calculations and the implications for state-of-the art detectors.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

The ePix10k 2-megapixel hard X-ray detector at LCLS

The ePix10ka2M (ePix10k) is a new large area detector specifically developed for X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) applications. The hybrid pixel detector was developed at SLAC to provide a hard X-ray area detector with a high dynamic range, running at the 120 Hz repetition rate of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). The ePix10k consists of 16 modules, each with 352 × 384 pixels of 100 µm × 100 µm distributed on four ASICs, resulting in a 2.16 megapixel detector, with a 16.5 cm × 16.5 cm active area and ∼80% coverage. The high dynamic range is achieved with three distinct gain settings (low, medium, high) as well as two auto-ranging modes (high-to-low and medium-to-low). Here the three fixed gain modes are evaluated. The resulting dynamic range (from single photon counting to 10000 photons pixel −1 pulse −1 at 8 keV) makes it suitable for a large number of different XFEL experiments. The ePix10k replaces the large CSPAD in operation since 2011. The dimensions of the two detectors are similar, making the upgrade from CSPAD to ePix10k straightforward for most setups, with the ePix10k improving on experimental performance. The SLAC-developed ePix cameras all utilize a similar platform, are tailored to target different experimental conditions and are designed to provide an upgrade path for future high-repetition-rate XFELs. Here the first measurements on this new ePix10k detector are presented and the performance under typical XFEL conditions evaluated during an LCLS X-ray diffuse scattering experiment measuring the 9.5 keV X-ray photons scattered from a thin liquid jet.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗