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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.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Measurement of the sodium and iodine scintillation quenching factors across multiple NaI(Tl) detectors to identify systematics

The amount of light produced by nuclear recoils in scintillating targets is strongly quenched compared to that produced by electrons. A precise understanding of the quenching factor is particularly interesting for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP) searches and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering ( CE ν NS ) measurements since both rely on nuclear recoils, whereas energy calibrations are more readily accessible from electron recoils. There is a wide variation among the current measurements of the quenching factor in sodium iodide (NaI) crystals, especially below 10 keV, the energy region of interest for dark matter and CE ν NS studies. A better understanding of the quenching factor in NaI(Tl) is of particular interest for resolving the decades-old puzzle in the field of dark matter between the null results of most WIMP searches and the claim for dark matter detection by the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration. In this work, we measured sodium and iodine quenching factors for five small NaI(Tl) crystals grown with similar thallium concentrations and growth procedures. Unlike previous experiments, multiple crystals were tested, with measurements made in the same experimental setup to control systematic effects. The quenching factors agree in all crystals we investigated, and both sodium and iodine quenching factors are smaller than those reported by DAMA/LIBRA. The dominant systematic effect was due to the electron equivalent energy calibration originating from the nonproportional behavior of the NaI(Tl) light yield at lower energies, potentially the cause for the discrepancies among the previous measurements. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Superconducting nanowires as high-rate photon detectors in strong magnetic fields

Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors are capable of single-photon detection across a large spectral range, with near unity detection efficiency, picosecond timing jitter, and sub-10 µm position resolution at rates as high as 10 9 counts/s. In an effort to bring this technology into nuclear physics experiments, we fabricate Niobium Nitride nanowire detectors using novel material preparation methods and test their performance in strong magnetic fields. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these devices are capable of detection of 400 nm wavelength photons with saturated internal quantum efficiency at liquid helium temperatures and in magnetic fields potentially up to 8 T at high rates and with nearly zero dark counts.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

The 3 He BF 3 Giant Barrel (HeBGB) neutron detector

(α,n) reactions play an important role in nuclear astrophysics and applications and are an important background source in neutrino and dark matter detectors. Measurements of total (α,n) cross sections employing direct neutron detection often have a considerable systematic uncertainty associated with the energy-dependent neutron detection efficiency and the unknown initial neutron energy distribution. Furthermore, the 3 He BF 3 Giant Barrel (HeBGB) neutron detector was built at the Edwards Accelerator Laboratory at Ohio University to overcome this challenge. HeBGB offers a near-constant neutron detection efficiency of (7.5 ± 1.2)% over the neutron energy range 0.01 MeV–9.00 MeV, removing a significant source of systematic uncertainty present in earlier (α,n) cross section measurements.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

A demonstrator for a real-time AI-FPGA-based triggering system for sPHENIX at RHIC

The RHIC interaction rate at sPHENIX will reach around 3 MHz in pp collisions and requires the detector readout to reject events by a factor of over 200 to fit the DAQ bandwidth of 15 kHz. Some critical measurements, such as heavy flavor production in pp collisions, often require the analysis of particles produced at low momentum. This prohibits adopting the traditional approach, where data rates are reduced through triggering on rare high momentum probes. We explore a new approach based on real-time AI technology, adopt an FPGA-based implementation using a custom designed FELIX-712 board with the Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale FPGA, and deploy the system in the detector readout electronics loop for real-time trigger decision.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

The sPHENIX Micromegas Outer Tracker

The sPHENIX Time Projection Chamber Outer Tracker (TPOT) is a Micromegas based detector. It is a part of the sPHENIX experiment that aims to facilitate the calibration of the Time Projection Chamber, in particular the correction of the time-averaged and beam-induced distortions of the electron drift. Here, this paper describes the detector mission, setup, construction, installation, commissioning and performance during the first year of sPHENIX data taking.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Measurements of fusion reaction history in inertially confined burning plasmas

Direct evidence of inertially confined fusion ignition appears in the abrupt temperature increase and consequent rapid increase in the thermonuclear burn rate as seen in the reaction history. The Gamma Reaction History (GRH) and Gas Cherenkov Detector (GCD) diagnostics are γ-based Cherenkov detectors that provide high quality measurements of deuterium–tritium fusion γ ray production and are, thus, capable of monitoring the thermonuclear burn rate. Temporal shifts in both peak burn time and burn width have been observed during recent high-yield shots (yields greater than 1017 neutrons) and are essential diagnostic signatures of the ignition process. While the current GRH and GCD detectors are fast enough to sense the changes of reaction history due to alpha heating, they do not have enough dynamic range to capture the onset of alpha heating. The next generation of instrumentation, GRH-15m, is proposed to increase the yield-rate coverage to measure the onset of alpha-heating.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

The BUTTON-30 detector at Boulby

The BUTTON-30 detector is a 30-tonne technology demonstrator designed to evaluate the potential of hybrid event detection, simultaneously exploiting both Cherenkov and scintillation light to detect particles produced in neutrino interactions. The detector is installed at a depth of 1.1 km in the Boulby Underground Laboratory allowing to test the performance of this new technology underground in a low background environment. This paper describes the design and construction of the experiment.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

ECCE unpolarized TMD measurements

For this work, we performed feasibility studies for various measurements that are related to unpolarized TMD distribution and fragmentation functions for the ECCE detector proposal. The processes studied include semi-inclusive Deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) where single hadrons (pions and kaons) were detected in addition to the scattered DIS lepton. The single hadron cross sections and multiplicities were extracted as a function of the DIS variables x and Q 2 , as well as the semi-inclusive variables z, which corresponds to the momentum fraction the detected hadron carries relative to the struck parton and P T , which corresponds to the transverse momentum of the detected hadron relative to the virtual photon. The expected statistical precision of such measurements is extrapolated to accumulated luminosities of 10 fb –1 and potential systematic uncertainties are approximated given the deviations between true and reconstructed yields. The expected uncertainties are then used to obtain the expected impact on the related TMD distribution and fragmentation functions. We find that the ECCE detector proposal fulfills the physics requirements on these channels as detailed in the EIC Yellow Report.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

The CMS Phase-1 Pixel Detector Upgrade

The CMS detector at the CERN LHC features a silicon pixel detector as its innermost subdetector. The original CMS pixel detector has been replaced with an upgraded pixel system (CMS Phase-1 pixel detector) in the extended year-end technical stop of the LHC in 2016/2017. The upgraded CMS pixel detector is designed to cope with the higher instantaneous luminosities that have been achieved by the LHC after the upgrades to the accelerator during the first long shutdown in 2013–2014. Compared to the original pixel detector, the upgraded detector has a better tracking performance and lower mass with four barrel layers and three endcap disks on each side to provide hit coverage up to an absolute value of pseudorapidity of 2.5. This paper describes the design and construction of the CMS Phase-1 pixel detector as well as its performance from commissioning to early operation in collision data-taking.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Progress in end-to-end optimization of fundamental physics experimental apparata with differentiable programming

In this article we examine recent developments in the research area concerning the creation of end-to-end models for the complete optimization of measuring instruments. The models we consider rely on differentiable programming methods and on the specification of a software pipeline including all factors impacting performance — from the data-generating processes to their reconstruction and the inference on the parameters of interest — along with the careful specification of a utility function well aligned with the end goals of the experiment. Building on previous studies originated within the MODE Collaboration, we focus specifically on applications involving instruments for particle physics experimentation, as well as industrial and medical applications that share the detection of radiation as their data-generating mechanism. This report illustrates the most recent advancements in the area, and outlines, for each of the discussed applications as well as for automatic differentiation itself, ongoing and future work.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dependence of polytetrafluoroethylene reflectance on thickness at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths in air

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is an excellent diffuse reflector widely used in light collection systems for particle physics experiments. However, the reflectance of PTFE is a function of its thickness. Here, in this work, we investigate this dependence in air for light of wavelengths 260 nm and 450 nm using two complementary methods. We find that PTFE reflectance for thicknesses from 5 mm to 10 mm ranges from 92.5% to 94.5% at 450 nm, and from 90.0% to 92.0% at 260 nm. We also see that the reflectance of PTFE of a given thickness can vary by as much as 2.7% within the same piece of material. Finally, we show that placing a specular reflector behind the PTFE can recover the loss of reflectance in the visible without introducing a specular component in the reflectance.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-resolution 3D-printed plastic scintillators with tertiary dye

Additive manufacturing offers efficient production of plastic scintillators with nontrivial geometries using vat polymerization, allowing fabrication of geometries which would be difficult or even impossible to produce using conventional subtractive manufacturing. This work presents a novel photocurable scintillator formula that includes coumarin 450 as a tertiary dye to enable high-resolution 3D printing via the manipulation of the 405 nm cure light. Bulk photocured and 3D printed (with and without tertiary dye) samples were compared through observational assessment and spectral response. All samples showed pulse shape discrimination between neutron and gamma events. Inclusion of the tertiary dye has minimal impact on emission spectrum and light output, but significant impact on print resolution as shown by comparison of printed high-complexity geometries and feature resolution test objects. With the use of a cure-limiting dye, unsupported features — such as freestanding pillars — were resolvable down to 0.7 mm. Even finer resolution at or below 0.1 mm was achieved in fully supported, integrated structures printed with off-the-shelf 405 nm desktop 3D printer. Scintillators demonstrated a light output up to 50% of EJ-200 with a PSD figure of merit up to 1.35 at 0.9–1.1 MeVee.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

DRiFT - Release 1.0.0 Organic Scintillators

DRiFT (a Detector Response Function Toolkit) is LANL-developed software that postprocesses output from the extensively validated radiation transport code, MCNP [1], and generates realistic nuclear instrumentation response. DRiFT is designed to be flexible, enabling users to specify detector type and many experimental settings, as well as accommodating the addition of their own desired features. Although DRiFT development has included scintillator [2], gas [3], and semiconductor features [4], the focus of this release is on organic scintillator and associated capabilities. Organic scintillators are widely used in the areas of nuclear safeguards and nuclear non-proliferation efforts [5, 6]. DRiFT has several diagnostic and detector physics features relevant to detailed scintillator simulations including: tracking source particle information, scintillation light production, the effects of PMT quantum efficiency and gain, and digitizer settings. Users can select responses from many scintillator and PMT types supported natively by DRiFT, or add their own by following the instructions in this document. We acknowledge that DRiFT is under active development, bug reports and general questions and comments should be directed to Madison Andrews, madison@lanl.gov. This manual is divided into four parts: I) An overview of DRiFT, including how to obtain and install the executable, II) A description of the detector physics related to scintillators available, III) a description of more general DRiFT features the user may find useful, and IV) a description of the test suite and examples made available with the code release.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Intelligent experiments through real-time AI: Fast Data Processing and Autonomous Detector Control for sPHENIX and future EIC detectors

This R&D project, initiated by the DOE Nuclear Physics AI-Machine Learning initiative in 2022, leverages AI to address data processing challenges in high-energy nuclear experiments (RHIC, LHC, and future EIC). Our focus is on developing a demonstrator for real-time processing of high-rate data streams from sPHENIX experiment tracking detectors. The limitations of a 15 kHz maximum trigger rate imposed by the calorimeters can be negated by intelligent use of streaming technology in the tracking system. The approach efficiently identifies low momentum rare heavy flavor events in high-rate p+p collisions (3MHz), using Graph Neural Network (GNN) and High Level Synthesis for Machine Learning (hls4ml). Success at sPHENIX promises immediate benefits, minimizing resources and accelerating the heavy-flavor measurements. The approach is transferable to other fields. For the EIC, we develop a DIS-electron tagger using Artificial Intelligence - Machine Learning (AI-ML) algorithms for real-time identification, showcasing the transformative potential of AI and FPGA technologies in high-energy nuclear and particle experiments real-time data processing pipelines.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

The polarization sensitivity of GRETINA

Compton polarimeters have played an important role in the study of nuclear structure physics, but have often been limited in their applications because of relatively low -ray detection efficiency. With the advent of -ray tracking detector arrays, which feature nearly solid angle coverage and the ability to identify the location of Compton-scattering events to within a few millimeters, this limitation can be overcome. Here we present a characterization of the performance of the Gamma Ray Energy Tracking In-beam Nuclear Array (GRETINA) as a Compton polarimeter using the 24 Mg(p,p') reaction at 2.45 MeV proton energy. We also discuss a new capability added to the simulation package UCGretina to simulate the emission of polarized photons, and compare it to the measured data. Lastly, we use these simulations to predict the performance of the Gamma Ray Energy Tracking Array (GRETA).

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗