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A program of testing aimed at the evaluation of systems that have the potential to provide the level of performance required for use in space-based instruments was undertaken and their usefulness appraised for astronomy. The results of the first phase of the program to characterize selected pixels of a HgCdTe photovoltaic array detector were reported.
The Proton Improvement Plan (PIP-II) to the FNAL accelerator chain and the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) will provide the world's most intense neutrino beam to the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) enabling a wide-ranging physics program. This document outlines the significant contributions made by European national laboratories and institutes towards realizing the first phase of the project with a 1.2 MW neutrino beam. Construction of this first phase is well underway. For DUNE Phase II, this will be closely followed by an upgrade of the beam power to > 2 MW, for which the European groups again have a key role and which will require the continued support of the European community for machine aspects of neutrino physics. Beyond the neutrino beam aspects, LBNF is also responsible for providing unique infrastructure to install and operate the DUNE neutrino detectors at FNAL and at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). The cryostats for the first two Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber detector modules at SURF, a contribution of CERN to LBNF, are central to the success of the ongoing execution of DUNE Phase I. Likewise, successful and timely procurement of cryostats for two additional detector modules at SURF will be critical to the success of DUNE Phase II and the overall physics program. The DUNE Collaboration is submitting four main contributions to the 2026 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics process. This paper is being submitted to the 'Accelerator technologies' and 'Projects and Large Experiments' streams. Additional inputs related to the DUNE science program, DUNE detector technologies and R&D, and DUNE software and computing, are also being submitted to other streams.
The primary purpose of this document is to present the technology development plan for the XMS detector system. It covers the current status (including assessment of the Technology Readiness Level, TRL, and a justification of the level assigned), the roadmap to progress to a level between TRL 5 and TRL 6 by the middle of 2012, and an assessment of the associated cost. A secondary purpose of this document is to address the Action Items raised at the XMS Phase-A Study Mid-Term Review that pertain to the detector system (AI #4, #8, and #9).
Determinations of the phase formation sequence, the crystal structures and the thermodynamic properties of materials at high temperatures are difficult because of contamination from the sample container and environment. Containerless processing techniques, such as electrostatic (ESL), electromagnetic (EML), aerodynamic, and acoustic levitation, are most suitable these studies. An adaptation of ESL for in-situ structural studies of a wide range of materials, including metals, semiconductors, insulators using high energy (125 keV) synchrotron x-rays is described here. This beamline ESL (BESL) allows the in-situ determination of the atomic structures of equilibrium solid and liquid phases, including undercooled liquids, as well as real-time studies of solid-solid and liquid-solid phase transformations. The use of image plate (MAR345) or GE-Angio detectors enables fast (30 ms - 1s) acquisition of complete diffraction patterns over a wide q-range (4 - 140/mm). The wide temperature range (300 - 2500 K), containerless processing under high vacuum (10(exp -7) - 10(exp -8) torr), and fast data acquisition, make BESL particularly suitable for phase diagram studies of high temperature materials. An additional, critically important, feature of BESL is the ability to also make simultaneous measurement of a host of thermo-physical properties, including the specific heat, enthalpy of transformation, solidus and liquidus temperatures, density, viscosity, and surface tension; all on the same sample and simultaneous with the structural measurements.
The processing approaches which form the basis of the Landsat-4 Thematic Mapper (TM) geometric correction system are summarized. The correction is accomplished in two phases. In the first phase, correction data are generated. The spacecraft position, TM frame attitude, TM scanning mirror position, and detector sampling are found as a function of time through a combination of flight segment measurements, ground segment modeling, and control point information. The data, along with the earth position and geoid model, are used to determine the earth location for each TM image sample. Then, using map projections, correction data can be generated which define the location of each TM image sample on the output coordinate system. In the second phase, the correction data are used to resample TM detector samples onto the output coordinate system.
An improved method of flow injection analysis for aqueous nitrite ion exploits the sensitivity and selectivity of the nitric oxide (NO) chemilluminescence detector. Trace analysis of nitrite ion in a small sample (5-160 microL) is accomplished by conversion of nitrite ion to NO by aqueous iodide in acid. The resulting NO is transported to the gas phase through a semipermeable membrane and subsequently detected by monitoring the photoemission of the reaction between NO and ozone (O3). Chemiluminescence detection is selective for measurement of NO, and, since the detection occurs in the gas-phase, neither sample coloration nor turbidity interfere. The detection limit for a 100-microL sample is 0.04 ppb of nitrite ion. The precision at the 10 ppb level is 2% relative standard deviation, and 60-180 samples can be analyzed per hour. Samples of human saliva and food extracts were analyzed; the results from a standard colorimetric measurement are compared with those from the new chemiluminescence method in order to further validate the latter method. A high degree of selectivity is obtained due to the three discriminating steps in the process: (1) the nitrite ion to NO conversion conditions are virtually specific for nitrite ion, (2) only volatile products of the conversion will be swept to the gas phase (avoiding turbidity or color in spectrophotometric methods), and (3) the NO chemiluminescence detector selectively detects the emission from the NO + O3 reaction. The method is free of interferences, offers detection limits of low parts per billion of nitrite ion, and allows the analysis of up to 180 microL-sized samples per hour, with little sample preparation and no chromatographic separation. Much smaller samples can be analyzed by this method than in previously reported batch analysis methods, which typically require 5 mL or more of sample and often need chromatographic separations as well.
Pulsars are a form of variable celestial source that have shown to be usable as aids for autonomous, deep space navigation. Particularly those sources emitting in the X-ray band are ideal for navigation due to smaller detector sizes. In this paper X-ray photons arriving from a pulsar are modeled as a non-homogeneous Poisson process. The method of pulse phase tracking is then investigated as a technique to measure the radial distance traveled by a spacecraft over an observation interval. A maximum-likelihood phase estimator (MLE) is used for the case where the observed frequency signal is constant. For the varying signal frequency case, an algorithm is used in which the observation window is broken up into smaller blocks over which an MLE is used. The outputs of this phase estimation process were then looped through a digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) in order to reduce the errors and produce estimates of the doppler frequency. These phase tracking algorithms were tested both in a computer simulation environment and using the NASA Goddard Space flight Center X-ray Navigation Laboratory Testbed (GXLT). This provided an experimental validation with photons being emitted by a modulated X-ray source and detected by a silicon-drift detector. Models of the Crab pulsar and the pulsar B1821-24 were used in order to generate test scenarios. Three different simulated detector trajectories were used to be tracked by the phase tracking algorithm: a stationary case, one with constant velocity, and one with constant acceleration. All three were performed in one-dimension along the line of sight to the pulsar. The first two had a constant signal frequency and the third had a time varying frequency. All of the constant frequency cases were processed using the MLE, and it was shown that they tracked the initial phase within 0.15% for the simulations and 2.5% in the experiments, based on an average of ten runs. The MLE-DPLL cascade version of the phase tracking algorithm was used in the varying frequency case. This resulted in tracking of the phase and frequency by the DPLL outputs in both the simulation and experimental environments. The crab pulsar was experimentally tested with a trajectory with a higher acceleration. In this case the phase error tended toward zero as the observation extended to 250 seconds and the doppler frequency error tended to zero in under 100 seconds.
A test facility was set up to evaluate back-illuminated impurity band detectors constructed for an infrared spectrograph to be used on the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF). Equipment built to perform the tests on these arrays is described. Initial tests have been geared toward determining dark current and read noise for the array. Four prior progress reports are incorporated into this report. They describe the first efforts in the detector development and testing effort; testing details and a new spectrograph concept; a discussion of resolution issues raised by the new design; management activities; a review of computer software and testing facility hardware; and a review of the preamplifier constructed as well as a revised schematic of the detector evaluation facility.
NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), in partnership with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), developed photovoltaic infrared (IR) detectors suitable at two different wavelengths using Sb-based material systems. Using lattice-matched InGaAsSb grown on GaSb substrates, dual wavelength detectors operating at 1.7 and 2.5 micron wavelengths can be realized. P-N junction diodes are fabricated on both GaSb and InGaAsSb materials. The photodiode on GaSb detects wavelengths at 1.7 micron and the InGaAsSb detector detects wavelengths at 2.2 micron or longer depending on the composition. The films for these devices are grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). The cross section of the independently accessed back-to-back photodiode dual band detector consists of a p-type substrate on which n-on-p GaInAsSb junction is grown, followed by a p-on-n GaSb junction. There are three ohmic contacts in this structure, one to the p-GaSb top layer, one to the n-GaSb/n-GaInAsSb layer and one to the p-type GaSb substrate. The common terminal is the contact to the n-GaSb/n-GaInAsSb layer. The contact to the n-GaSb/p-GaInAsSb region of the photodiode in the dual band is electrically connected and is accessed at the edge of the photodiode. NASA LaRC acquired the fabricated dual band detector from RPI and characterized the detector at its Detector Characterization Laboratory. Characterization results, such as responsivity, noise, quantum efficiency, and detectivity will be presented.
High-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM) is an indispensable tool for characterizing the structure and properties of materials down to the atomic scale. Conventional S/TEM imaging, however, is limited by the phase problem, whereby the phase of the electron exit wave is lost upon detection. Recent advances in diffractive imaging and 4D-STEM have enabled a range of phase-retrieval techniques that computationally reconstruct the missing information encoded in the phase of the transmission function. These approaches offer improved dose efficiency and enhanced sensitivity to weakly scattering signals, extending quantitative imaging to beam-sensitive materials composed of light elements. In this work, we introduce the phase problem in electron microscopy and survey the diverse landscape of phase-retrieval techniques used in the field. Despite their many acronyms and algorithmic variations, these techniques share a common physical and mathematical foundation. We present a unified framework that connects these seemingly distinct methods, from parallax imaging and tilt-corrected bright-field (tcBF-STEM), to aberration-corrected bright-field (acBF-STEM), optimum bright-field (OBF-STEM) and single-sideband (SSB) ptychography, as well as first-moment integrated center of mass techniques (iCOM) and iterative ptychographic algorithms. Based on these insights, we discuss the opportunities and practical limitations of applying these methods across different materials systems, detector designs, and microscope configurations.Graphical abstractRepresentative electron microscopy configurations used for phase retrieval and diffractive imaging in S/TEM: (a) Zernike phase-contrast transmission electron microscopy (TEM), (b) small-convergence-angle four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) for nanobeam-based phase reconstruction methods, and (c) large-convergence-angle 4D-STEM for ptychographic and related diffractive imaging techniques reviewed in this work.
We present a novel methodology to search for intranuclear neutron-antineutron transition (n→n̅) followed by n̅-nucleon annihilation within an 40 Ar nucleus, using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) detector. A discovery of n→n̅ transition or a new best limit on the lifetime of this process would either constitute physics beyond the Standard Model or greatly constrain theories of baryogenesis, respectively. The approach presented in this paper makes use of deep learning methods to select n→n̅ events based on their unique features and differentiate them from cosmogenic backgrounds. The achieved signal and background efficiencies are (70.22 ± 6.04)% and (0.0020 ± 0.0003)%, respectively. A demonstration of a search is performed with a data set corresponding to an exposure of 3.32 ×10 26 neutron-years, and where the background rate is constrained through direct measurement, assuming the presence of a negligible signal. With this approach, no excess of events over the background prediction is observed, setting a demonstrative lower bound on the n→n̅ lifetime in 40 Ar of τ m ≳ 1.1×10 26 years, and on the free n→n̅ transition time of τ n→n̅ ≳ 2.6×10 5 s, each at the 90% confidence level. This analysis represents a first-ever proof-of-principle demonstration of the ability to search for this rare process in LArTPCs with high efficiency and low background.
Power-over-Fiber (PoF) technology has been used extensively in settings where high voltages require isolation from ground. In a novel application of PoF, power is provided to photon detector modules located on a surface at ∼ 300 kV with respect to ground in the planned DUNE experiment. In cryogenic environments, PoF offers a reliable means of power transmission, leveraging optical fibers to transfer optical power. PoF technology excels in maintaining low noise levels when delivering power to sensitive electronic systems operating in extreme temperatures and high voltage environments. This paper presents the R&D effort of PoF in extreme conditions and underscores its capacity to revolutionize power delivery and management in critical applications, offering a dependable solution with low noise, optimal efficiency (∼ 51%), and superior isolation.
This paper describes the cryogenic and purification systems of the ICARUS T600 detector in its present implementation at the Fermi National Laboratory, Illinois, U.S.A. The ICARUS T600 detector is made of four large Time Projection Chambers, installed in two separate containers of about 275 m 3 each. The detector uses liquid argon both as target and as active medium. For the correct operation of the detector, the liquid argon must be kept in very stable thermal conditions and the contamination of electronegative impurities must be consistently kept at the level of small fractions of parts per billion. The detector was previously operated in Italy, at the INFN Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory (LNGS), in a three-year run on the CERN to LNGS Long Baseline Neutrino Beam. For its operation on the Booster and NuMI neutrino beams at Fermilab, for the search of sterile neutrinos and measurements of neutrino-argon cross sections, the detector was moved from Gran Sasso to CERN for the upgrades required for operation at shallow depth with high intensity neutrino beams. The liquid argon containers, the thermal insulation and all the cryogenic equipment have been completely re-designed and rebuilt, following the schemes of the previous installation in Gran Sasso. The detector and all the equipment have been transported to Fermilab, where they have been installed, tested and recently put into operation. The work described in this paper has been conducted as a joint responsibility of CERN and Fermilab with the supervision provided by the ICARUS Collaboration. Design, installation, testing, commissioning and operation are the result of a common effort of CERN, Fermilab and INFN groups.
In this paper, we present a first quantitative test of detected light signals produced in a pulsed neutron source run in a small vertical drift LArTPC at the CERN Neutrino Platform ColdBox test facility. The ColdBox cryostat, detectors, neutron sources, and particle interactions are modeled and simulated using Fluka. We demonstrate the ability to identify the contribution from neutron interactions using X-ARAPUCA photodetectors, and show first comparisons of data to simulation, which indicate reasonable agreement. A time constant is also fitted from the neutron-beam-off light signal spectrum and found consistent between data and simulation. Several important systematic effects are discussed and serve as guides for future runs at larger LArTPCs.
We present a smart pixel prototype readout integrated circuit (ROIC) designed in CMOS 28 nm bulk process, with in-pixel implementation of an artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) based data filtering algorithm designed as proof-of-principle for a Phase III upgrade at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) pixel detector. The first version of the ROIC consists of two matrices of 256 smart pixels, each 25$\times$25 µm\textsuperscript{2} in size. Each pixel consists of a charge-sensitive preamplifier with leakage current compensation and three auto-zero comparators for a 2-bit flash-type ADC. The frontend is capable of synchronously digitizing the sensor charge within 25 ns. Measurement results show an equivalent noise charge (ENC) of $\sim$30e\textsuperscript{-} and a total dispersion of $\sim$100e\textsuperscript{-} The second version of the ROIC uses a fully connected two-layer neural network (NN) to process information from a cluster of 256 pixels to determine if the pattern corresponds to highly desirable high-momentum particle tracks for selection and readout. The digital NN is embedded in-between analog signal processing regions of the 256 pixels without increasing the pixel size and is implemented as fully combinatorial digital logic to minimize power consumption and eliminate clock distribution, and is active only in the presence of an input signal. The total power consumption of the neural network is $\sim$ 300 $\mu$W. The NN performs momentum classification based on the generated cluster patterns and even with a modest momentum threshold, it is capable of 54.4\% – 75.4\% total data rejection, opening the possibility of using the pixel information at 40MHz for the trigger. The total power consumption of analog and digital functions per pixel is $\sim$ 6 $\mu$W per pixel, which corresponds to $\sim$ 1 W/cm\textsuperscript{2} staying within the experimental constraints.
Discussion of the energy spectra and pitch angle distributions of ring current protons observed with the solid-state proton detector of Explorer 45 during the main and fast recovery phases of a storm on Dec. 17, 1971. Appearances of characteristic changes in the pitch angle distributions of roughly 100-eV protons are interpreted as pitch angle dispersion of rapidly injected protons during their azimuthal drift at L values above 5.
Apparatus and method is presented for phase detection in binary signal tracking loops wherein two bandpass detectors are alternately interchanged between electrical connection with two local code reference tracking signals in order to cancel any adverse effect of gain imbalance in the bandpass detectors and direct current offset or drift. The detectors are time shared in multiplex fashion between the two local reference signals.
The previous characterization of scan-related low-frequency noise was confirmed and extended through analysis of reflective-band data from another nighttime acquisition. Amplitude and phase relationships of the level shifts were determined for each detector in each of free full frames. Analysis of scan-direction-related signal droop effects in nighttime data from the reflective bands was begun with encouraging initial observations. Also, an effort to characterize high-frequency noise in the reflective bands through Fourier analysis of nighttime data was initiated. Recommendations are made relative to the choice of radiometric calibration constants in the thematic mapper image processing system for the routine processing of TM data. Non-linear (piece-wise linear) calibration curves are recommended.