Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Solid state detector”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Characterization of Silicon Photomultiplier Photon Detection Efficiency at Liquid Nitrogen Temperature

The detection of individual photons at cryogenic temperatures is of interest to many experiments searching for physics beyond the Standard Model. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are often deployed in liquid argon or liquid xenon to detect scintillation light either directly or after it has been wavelength-shifted. Maximizing the photon detection efficiency (PDE) of the SiPMs used in these experiments optimizes the sensitivity to new physics; however, the PDEs of commercial SiPMs, although well known at room temperature, are not well characterized at the cryogenic temperatures at which many experiments operate them. Here we present results from an experimental setup that measures the photon detection efficiencies of silicon photomultipliers at liquid nitrogen temperature, 77 K. Results from a KETEK PM3325-WB-D0 and a Hamamatsu S13360-3050CS silicon photomultiplier — of R&D interest to the LEGEND experiment — exhibit a decrease in photon detection efficiency greater than 20% at liquid nitrogen temperature relative to room temperature for 562 nm light.

Cryogenic detectors↗
DOE OSTI2026

ICONS: Solid-State Composite Neutron Detector

Neutron detection is essential for identifying and monitoring nuclear materials and nuclear reactions. Most deployed neutron-detection systems rely on helium-3 ( 3 He) gas-filled tubes, which have been the standard technology for decades.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1974

Physics of sub-micron cosmic dust particles

Laboratory tests with simulated micrometeoroids to measure the heat transfer coefficient are discussed. Equations for ablation path length for electrically accelerated micrometeoroids entering a gas target are developed which yield guidelines for the laboratory measurement of the heat transfer coefficient. Test results are presented for lanthanum hexaboride (LaB sub 6) microparticles in air, argon, and oxygen targets. The tests indicate the heat transfer coefficient has a value of approximately 0.9 at 30 km/sec, and that it increases to approximately unity at 50 km/sec and above. Test results extend to over 100 km/sec. Results are also given for two types of small particle detectors. A solid state capacitor type detector was tested from 0.61 km/sec to 50 km/sec. An impact ionization type detector was tested from 1.0 to 150 km/sec using LaB sub 6 microparticles.

Roy, N. L.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Low Level Neutron Spectroscopy

Although the most sought-after hot plasma fusion reactions use deuterium-tritium due to its higher fusion cross-section, the deuteron-deuteron fusion reaction is also used and is suspected in Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR). Although LENR reactions are largely aneutronic, the D(d,n)3He reaction produces a 2.45 MeV kinetic energy neutron. In the course of fusion experiments at NASA, ranging from bremsstrahlung photoneutron-initiated fusion to Pd/D co-deposition, we’ve made use of liquid and solid neutron scintillator spectrometers, bubble detectors and Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors (CR-39). We have observed the unfolded neutron energy spectrum from primary fusion and boosted fusion or stripped neutrons from photoneutron induced fusion. Despite an average deuteron energy of 64 keV, the peak unfolded neutron flux was only a few neutrons/minute. The major problem was the 10e14vgamma ray/neutrons/second flux ratio.

Neutron spectroscopy↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-energy X-ray imaging with a Germanium MM-PAD hybrid pixel detector

Germanium is a high-Z sensor material with excellent energy resolution and attractive properties for high-energy photon detection. Despite its advantages, the need for cryogenic operation and challenges in the fabrication of pixelated high-purity germanium have hindered the development of segmented detectors. We report on the fabrication and performance of a germanium imaging detector with 150 μm pixel pitch hybridized to the MM-PAD ASIC. The detector was capable of high-resolution radiographic imaging and has a fast temporal response. Additionally, we describe the detector's upper operating temperature limits using both the MM-PAD and MARS ASICs, achieving stable operation up to 130 K and 190 K, respectively.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Measured gain suppression in FBK LGADs with different active thicknesses

In recent years, the gain suppression mechanism has been studied for large localized charge deposits in Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs). LGADs are a thin silicon detector with a highly doped gain layer that provides moderate internal signal amplification. Using the CENPA Tandem accelerator at the University of Washington, the response of LGADs with different thicknesses to MeV-range energy deposits from a proton beam were studied. Three LGAD prototypes of 50 μm, 100 μm, and 150 μm were characterized. The devices' gain was determined as a function of bias voltage, incidence beam angle, and proton energy. This study was conducted in the scope of the PIONEER experiment, an experiment proposed at the Paul Scherrer Institute to perform high-precision measurements of rare pion decays. LGADs are considered for the active target (ATAR), and energy linearity is an important property for particle ID capabilities.

Particle tracking detectors↗
DOE OSTI2025

Performance of an X-γ ray detection system based on a thick silicon LGAD

We present the performance of a X-γ ray detection systems based on a 300 µm thick silicon low-gain avalanche diode (LGAD) and of an equivalent Diode structure without the gain layer, read-out by a custom-made low-noise charge amplifier. For the LGAD structure, the multiplication gains M s from 10.2 to 19.3 are measured, and the Equivalent Noise Charge (ENC) components have been studied in detail. As expected, a significant reduction of the white and 1/f voltage series and dielectric ENC components is observed with increasing gain, shortening the optimum peaking time to τ = 0.4÷8 μs depending on the gain value, with respect to the standard diode, while the parallel ENC component increases proportionally to the gain up to M s = 15. Setting the gain M s = 12.7, a minimum ENC = 34.5 electrons r.m.s. (298 eV FWHM) at τ = 1 μs is found. However, the electronic noise, evaluated on the pulser FWHM, is found to only marginally contribute to the width of the spectral lines of a radioactive source, which are dominated instead by the statistical noise of the charge multiplication within the LGAD structure. The spectral lines' excess width is found to be proportional to the signal multiplication gain M s and increases with the energy of the photons. A minimum line width of 850 eV FWHM at 13.9 keV is measured at room temperature, τ = 2 μs and a gain M s = 10.2.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Exploring the keV-scale physics potential of CUORE

We present the analysis techniques developed to explore the keV-scale energy region of the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment, based on more than 2 metric ton yr of data collected over five years. By prioritizing a stricter selection over a larger exposure, we are able to optimize data selection for thresholds at 10 keV and 3 keV with 691 kg yr and 11 kg yr of data, respectively. We study how the performance varies among the 988-detector array with different detector characteristics and data-taking conditions. We achieve an average baseline resolution of 2.54 ±0.14 keV FWHM and 1.18 ±0.02 keV FWHM for the data selection at 10 keV and 3 keV, respectively. The analysis methods employed reduce the overall background by about an order of magnitude, reaching 2.06±0.05 counts/(keV kg days) and 16±2 counts/(keV kg days) at the thresholds of 10 keV and 3 keV. We evaluate for the first time the near-threshold reconstruction efficiencies of the CUORE experiment, and find these to be 50 ±2% and 26 ±4% at 10 keV and 3 keV, respectively. This analysis provides crucial insights into rare decay studies, new physics searches, and keV-scale background modeling with CUORE. We demonstrate that ton-scale cryogenic calorimeters can operate across a wide energy range, from keV to MeV, establishing their scalability as versatile detectors for rare event and dark matter physics. These findings also inform the optimization of future large mass cryogenic calorimeters to enhance the sensitivity to low-energy phenomena.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Final Results of the M AJORANA D EMONSTRATOR ’s Search for Double-Beta Decay of 76 Ge to Excited States of 76 Se

76 Ge can 𝛽⁢𝛽 decay into three possible excited states of 76 Se , with the emission of two or, if the neutrino is Majorana, zero neutrinos. None of these six transitions have yet been observed. The M AJORANA D EMONSTRATOR was designed to study 𝛽⁢𝛽 decay of 76 Ge using a low background array of high purity germanium detectors. With 98.2 kg-y of isotopic exposure, the demonstrator sets the strongest half-life limits to date for all six transition modes. For 2⁢𝜈⁢𝛽⁢𝛽 to the 0$^+_1$ state of 76 Se , this search has begun to probe for the first time half-life values predicted using modern many-body nuclear theory techniques, setting a limit of 𝑇 1/2 > 1.5 × 10 24 y (90% CL).

Majorana neutrinos↗
DOE OSTI2025

Expected tracking performance of the ATLAS Inner Tracker at the High-Luminosity LHC

The high-luminosity phase of LHC operations (HL-LHC), will feature a large increase in simultaneous proton-proton interactions per bunch crossing up to 200, compared with a typical leveling target of 64 in Run 3. Such an increase will create a very challenging environment in which to perform charged particle trajectory reconstruction, a task crucial for the success of the ATLAS physics program, and will exceed the capabilities of the current ATLAS Inner Detector (ID). A new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk) will replace the current ID in time for the start of the HL-LHC. To ensure successful use of the ITk capabilities in Run 4 and beyond, the ATLAS tracking software has been successfully adapted to achieve state-of-the-art track reconstruction in challenging high-luminosity conditions with the ITk detector. This paper presents the expected tracking performance of the ATLAS ITk based on the latest available developments since the ITk technical design reports.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Experimental study of different silicon sensor options for the upgrade of the CMS Outer Tracker

During the high-luminosity phase of the LHC (HL-LHC), planned to start in 2027, the accelerator is expected to deliver an instantaneous peak luminosity of up to 7.5×10 34 cm –2 s –1 . A total integrated luminosity of 3000 or even 4000 fb –1 is foreseen to be delivered to the general purpose detectors ATLAS and CMS over a decade, thereby increasing the discovery potential of the LHC experiments significantly. The CMS detector will undergo a major upgrade for the HL-LHC,with entirely new tracking detectors consisting of an Outer Tracker and Inner Tracker. However, the new tracking system will be exposed to a significantly higher radiation than the current tracker, requiring new radiation-hard sensors. CMS initiated an extensive irradiation and measurement campaign starting in 2009 to systematically compare the properties of different silicon materials and design choices for the Outer Tracker sensors. Several test structures and sensors were designed and implemented on 18 different combinations of wafer materials, thicknesses, and production technologies. The devices were electrically characterized before and after irradiation with neutrons,and with protons of different energies, with fluences corresponding to those expected at different radii of the CMS Outer Tracker after 3000 fb –1 . The tests performed include studies with β sources, lasers, and beam scans. This paper compares the performance of different options for the HL-LHC silicon sensors with a focus on silicon bulk material and thickness.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

FPGA-based tracking for the CMS Level-1 trigger using the tracklet algorithm

The high instantaneous luminosities expected following the upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) pose major experimental challenges for the CMS experiment. A central component to allow efficient operation under these conditions is the reconstruction of charged particle trajectories and their inclusion in the hardware based trigger system. There are many challenges involved in achieving this: a large input data rate of about 20–40 Tb/s; processing a new batch of input data every 25 ns, each consisting of about 15,000 precise position measurements and rough transverse momentum measurements of particles (“stubs”); performing the pattern recognition on these stubs to find the trajectories; and producing the list of trajectory parameters within 4 µs. Here, this paper describes a proposed solution to this problem, specifically, it presents a novel approach to pattern recognition and charged particle trajectory reconstruction using an all-FPGA solution. The results of an end-to-end demonstrator system, based on Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGAs, that meets timing and performance requirements are presented along with a further improved, optimized version of the algorithm together with its corresponding expected performance.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Characterization of the CMS Endcap Timing Layer readout chip prototype with charge injection

We present the characterization of a readout Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) for the CMS Endcap Timing Layer (ETL) of the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade with charge injection. The ASIC, named ETROC and developed in a 65 nm CMOS technology, reads out a 16× 16 pixel matrix of the Low-Gain Avalanche Detector (LGAD). The jitter contribution from ETROC is required to be below 40 ps to achieve the 50 ps overall time resolution per hit. The analog readout circuits in ETROC consist of the preamplifier and the discriminator. The preamplifier handles the LGAD charge signal with the most probable value of around 15 fC. The discriminator generates the digital pulse, which provides the Time-Of-Arrival (TOA, leading edge) and Time-Over-Threshold (TOT, pulse width) information. The prototype of ETROC (ETROC0) that implements a single channel of analog readout circuits has been evaluated with charge injection. The jitter of the analog readout circuits, measured from the discriminator's leading edge, is better than 16 ps for a charge larger than 15 fC with the sensor capacitance. The time walk resulting from different pulse heights can be corrected using the TOT measurement. The time resolution distribution has a standard deviation of 29 ps after the time-walk correction from the charge injection. At room temperature, the preamplifier's power consumption is measured to be 0.74 mW and 1.53 mW per pixel in the low- and high-power mode, respectively. Finally, the measured power consumption of the discriminator is 0.84 mW per pixel. With the ASIC alone or the LGAD sensor, The characterization performances fulfill the ETL's challenging requirements.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Lycoris - A large-area, high resolution beam telescope

We note that a high-resolution beam telescope is one of the most important and demanding infrastructure components at any test beam facility. Its main purpose is to provide reference particle tracks from the incoming test beam particles to the test beam users, which allows measurement of the performance of the device-under-test (DUT). LYCORIS, a six-plane compact beam telescope with an active area of ~ 10 x 10 cm 2 (extensible to 10 x 20 cm 2 ) was installed at the DESY II Test Beam Facility in 2019, to provide a precise momentum measurement in a 1 T solenoid magnet or to provide tracking over a large area. The overall design of Lycoris will be described as well as the performance of the chosen silicon sensor. The 25 μm pitch micro-strip sensor used for Lycoris was originally designed for the SiD detector concept for the International Linear Collider. It adopts a second metallization layer to route signals from strips to the bump-bonded KPiX ASIC and uses a wire-bonded flex cable for the connection to the DAQ and the power supply system. This arrangement eliminates the need for a dedicated hybrid PCB. Its performance was tested for the first time in this project. The system has been evaluated at the DESY II Test Beam Facility in several test-beam campaigns and has demonstrated an average single-point resolution of 7.07 μm.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Comparative evaluation of analogue front-end designs for the CMS Inner Tracker at the High Luminosity LHC

The CMS Inner Tracker, made of silicon pixel modules, will be entirely replaced prior to the start of the High Luminosity LHC period. One of the crucial components of the new Inner Tracker system is the readout chip, being developed by the RD53 Collaboration, and in particular its analogue front-end, which receives the signal from the sensor and digitizes it. Three different analogue front-ends (Synchronous, Linear, and Differential) were designed and implemented in the RD53A demonstrator chip. A dedicated evaluation program was carried out to select the most suitable design to build a radiation tolerant pixel detector able to sustain high particle rates with high efficiency and a small fraction of spurious pixel hits. The test results showed that all three analogue front-ends presented strong points, but also limitations. The Differential front-end demonstrated very low noise, but the threshold tuning became problematic after irradiation. Moreover, a saturation in the preamplifier feedback loop affected the return of the signal to baseline and thus increased the dead time. The Synchronous front-end showed very good timing performance, but also higher noise. For the Linear front-end all of the parameters were within specification, although this design had the largest time walk. This limitation was addressed and mitigated in an improved design. The analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the three front-ends in the context of the CMS Inner Tracker operation requirements led to the selection of the improved design Linear front-end for integration in the final CMS readout chip.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Comparison of measurement and simulation of ATLAS cavern radiation background

Sixteen Medipix2 pixel detector based (MPX) devices were operated at various positions within the ATLAS detector and cavern continuously from early 2008 up to 2013. In addition to photons, each MPX detector is capable to detect charged particles, and neutrons as it is covered with a mask of converter materials dividing its area into regions sensitive to thermal or fast neutrons. The MPX detector network was effectively used for real-time measurements of the spectral characteristics and composition of complex radiation fields in ATLAS. This article reports comparison of the results of measurements performed with MPX detectors during the LHC operation period in 2010 and 2011 with Monte Carlo simulations results from the FLUGG and GCALOR codes. For the purpose of this comparison, the MPX detectors were operated in tracking mode with low threshold (8–10 keV) allowing one to distinguish among particle categories based on the recognition of track patterns left by the particles in the MPX sensitive layer. The comparison of measurements with simulations shows that the agreement between measured and simulated data is satisfactory in most cases within a factor of two.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Characterization of BNL and HPK AC-LGAD sensors with a 120 GeV proton beam

We present measurements of AC-LGADs performed at the Fermilab's test beam facility using 120 GeV protons. Here we studied the performance of various strip and pad AC-LGAD sensors that were produced by BNL and HPK. The measurements are performed with our upgraded test beam setup that utilizes a high precision telescope tracker, and a simultaneous readout of up to 7 channels per sensor, which allows detailed studies of signal sharing characteristics. These measurements allow us to assess the differences in designs between different manufacturers, and optimize them based on experimental performance. We then study several reconstruction algorithms to optimize position and time resolutions that utilize the signal sharing properties of each sensor. We present a world's first demonstration of silicon sensors in a test beam that simultaneously achieve better than 6–10 μm position and 30 ps time resolution. This represents a substantial improvement to the spatial resolution than would be obtained with binary readout of sensors with similar pitch.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Beam test performance of a prototype module with Short Strip ASICs for the CMS HL-LHC tracker upgrade

The Short Strip ASIC (SSA) is one of the four front-end chips designed for the upgrade of the CMS Outer Tracker for the High Luminosity LHC. Together with the Macro-Pixel ASIC (MPA) it will instrument modules containing a strip and a macro-pixel sensor stacked on top of each other. The SSA provides both full readout of the strip hit information when triggered, and, together with the MPA, correlated clusters called stubs from the two sensors for use by the CMS Level-1 (L1) trigger system. Results from the first prototype module consisting of a sensor and two SSA chips are presented. The prototype module has been characterized at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility using a 120 GeV proton beam.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗