In high momenta range, the construction of a Ring Imaging CHerenkov (RICH) detector for the particle identification at the future Electron Ion Collider (EIC) is a complicated task. A compact collider ...setup imposes to construct a RICH with a short radiator length, hence limiting the number of photons. The number of photons can be increase by choosing to work in far UV region. However, as standard fused-silica windows are opaque below 165 nm, therefore, a windowless RICH approach could be a possible choice. In the far UV range, CsI is a widely used photo-cathode (PC) to detect photons, but because of its hygroscopic nature, it is very delicate to handle. Its Quantum Efficiency (QE) degrades in high intensity ion fluxes. These are the key reasons to search a novel, less delicate PC with sensitivity in the far UV region. Hydrogenated nanodiamond films are proposed as an alternative PC material and shown to have promising characteristics. The performance of nanodiamond PC coupled to THGEM-based detectors is the objects of our ongoing R & D.
The first phase of these studies includes the characterization of THGEMs coated with nanodiamont PC, the comparison of the effective QE in vacuum and in gaseous atmospheres, the hardness respect to the PC bombardment by ions from the multiplication process. The approach is described in detail as well as all the results obtained so far with these exploratory studies.
In 2016 we have upgraded the COMPASS RICH by novel gaseous photon detectors based on MPGD technology. Four new photon detectors, covering a total active area of 1.5
m
2
, have been installed in order ...to cope with the challenging efficiency and stability requirements of the COMPASS physics programme. The new detector architecture consists in a hybrid MPGD combination: two layers of THGEMs, the first of which also acts as a reflective photocathode thanks to CsI coating, are coupled to a bulk Micromegas on a pad-segmented anode. These detectors are the first application in an experiment of MPGD-based single photon detectors. Presently, we are further developing the MPGD-based PDs to make them adequate for a setup at the future EIC collider. All aspects of the COMPASS RICH-1 Photon Detectors upgrade are presented: R&D, engineering, mass production, QA and performance; the on-going development for collider application is also presented.
The design of a Ring Imaging CHerenkov (RICH) detector for the identification of high momentum particles at the future Electron Ion Collider (EIC) is extremely challenging by using current ...technology. Compact collider setups impose to construct RICH with short radiator length, hence limiting the number of generated photons. The number of detected photons can be increased by selecting the far UV region. As standard fused-silica windows is opaque below 165 nm, a windowless RICH can be a possible approach. CsI is widely used photocathode (PC) for photon detection in the far UV range. Due to its hygroscopic nature it is very delicate to handle. In addition, its Quantum Effciency (QE) degrades in high intensity ion fluxes. These are the key reasons to quest for novel PC with sensitivity in the far UV region. Recent development of layers of hydrogenated nanodiamond powders as an alternative PC material and their performance, when coupled to the THick Gaseous Electron Multipliers (THGEM)-based detectors, are the objects of an ongoing R&D. We report here some preliminary results on the initial phase of these studies.
After pioneering gaseous detectors of single photon for RICH applications using CsI solid state photocathodes in MWPCs within the RD26 collaboration and by the constructions for the RICH detector of ...the COMPASS experiment at CERN SPS, in 2016 we have upgraded COMPASS RICH by novel gaseous photon detectors based on MPGD technology. Four novel photon detectors, covering a total active area of 1.5 m2, have been installed in order to cope with the challenging effciency and stability requirements of the COMPASS physics programme. They are the first application in an experiment of MPGD-based single photon detectors. All aspects of the upgrade are presented, including engineering, mass production, quality assessment and performance. Perspectives for further developments in the field of gaseous single photon detectors are also indicated.
Status and characterisation of COMPASS RICH-1 Albrecht, E.; Baum, G.; Birsa, R. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
11/2005, Volume:
553, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
COMPASS RICH-1, a gas-radiator RICH detector with large transversal dimensions, which makes use of MWPC with CsI photocathodes as photon detectors, is in operation at COMPASS since 2001. The ...behaviour of the detector components is optimised and fully understood. The characterisation of the detector is now complete. We report about the detector status and its response in the COMPASS environment.
The XAFS beamline at Elettra Synchrotron in Trieste combines X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to provide chemically specific structural information of materials. It operates in the ...energy range 2.4-27 keV by using a silicon double reflection Bragg monochromator. The fluorescence measurement is performed in place of the absorption spectroscopy when the sample transparency is too low for transmission measurements or the element to study is too diluted in the sample. We report on the development and on the preliminary tests of a new prototype detector based on Silicon Drift Detectors technology and the SIRIO ultra low noise front-end ASIC. The new system will be able to reduce drastically the time needed to perform fluorescence measurements, while keeping a short dead time and maintaining an adequate energy resolution to perform spectroscopy. The custom-made silicon sensor and the electronics are designed specifically for the beamline requirements.
The paper presents some outcomes obtained during the year of 2013 of the activity in the frame of the International Atomic Energy Agency Co-ordinated research project "Investigations of Materials ...under High Repetition and Intense Fusion-Relevant Pulses". The main results are related to the effects created at the interaction of powerful pulses of different types of radiation (soft and hard X-rays, hot plasma and fast ion streams, neutrons, etc. generated in Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) facilities) with various materials including those that are counted as perspective ones for their use in future thermonuclear reactors. Besides we discuss phenomena observed at the irradiation of biological test objects. We examine possible applications of nanosecond powerful pulses of neutrons to the aims of nuclear medicine and for disclosure of hidden illegal objects. Special attention is devoted to discussions of a possibility to create extremely large and enormously diminutive DPF devices and probabilities of their use in energetics, medicine and modern electronics.
We present a VLSI implementation of a hardware sorting algorithm for continuous data sorting. The device is able to continuously process an input data stream while producing a sorted output data ...stream. At each clock cycle, the device reads and processes a 48-bit word, 24 bits for the datum and 24 bits for the associated tag. The data stream is sorted according to the tags preserving the order of words with identical tags. Sequences up to 256 words are completely sorted and longer sequences are partially sorted. The maximum operation frequency is 50 Mwords/s. The architecture is based on a chain of identical elementary sorting units. A full custom design exploits the highly regular architecture to achieve high area and time performance. We describe the algorithm and give architectural details.