We present the noise performance of high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) developed by CNRS/C2N laboratory. Various HEMT’s gate geometries with 2 pF to 230 pF input capacitance have been studied ...at 4 K. A model for both voltage and current noises has been developed with frequency dependence up to 1 MHz. These HEMTs exhibit low dissipation, excellent noise performance and can advantageously replace traditional Si-JFETs for the readout of high impedance thermal sensor and semiconductor ionization cryogenic detectors. Our model predicts that cryogenic germanium detectors of 30 g with 10 eV heat and 20 eV
ee
baseline resolution are feasible if read out by HEMT-based amplifiers. Such resolution allows for high discrimination between nuclear and electron recoils at low threshold. This capability is of major interest for coherent elastic neutrino scattering and low-mass dark matter experiments such as Ricochet and EDELWEISS.
The
Ricochet
reactor neutrino observatory is planned to be installed at Institut Laue–Langevin starting in mid-2022. The scientific goal of the
Ricochet
collaboration is to perform a low-energy and ...percentage precision CENNS measurement in order to explore exotic physics scenarios beyond the standard model. To that end,
Ricochet
will host two cryogenic detector arrays: the CryoCube (Ge target) and the Q-ARRAY (Zn target), both with unprecedented sensitivity to
O
(10) eV nuclear recoils. The CryoCube will be composed of 27 Ge crystals of 38 g instrumented with NTD-Ge thermal sensor as well as aluminum electrodes operated at 10 mK in order to measure both the ionization and the heat energies arising from a particle interaction. To be a competitive CENNS detector, the CryoCube array is designed with the following specifications: a low-energy threshold (
∼
50
eV), the ability to identify and reject with a high efficiency the overwhelming electromagnetic backgrounds (gamma, beta, and X-rays), and a sufficient payload (
∼
1
kg). After a brief introduction of the future
Ricochet
experiment and its CryoCube, the current works and first performance results on the optimization of the heat channel, and the electrode designs will be presented. We conclude with a preliminary estimation of the CryoCube sensitivity to the CENNS signal within
Ricochet
.
The R
icochet
reactor neutrino observatory is planned to be installed at the Laue Langevin Institute starting mid-2022. Its scientific goal is to perform a low-energy and high precision measurement ...of the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering spectrum in order to explore exotic physics scenarios. R
icochet
will host two cryogenic detector arrays: the CryoCube (Ge target) and the Q-
array
(Zn target), operated at 10 mK. The 1 kg Ge CryoCube will consist of 27 Ge crystals instrumented with NTD-Ge thermal sensors and charge collection electrodes for a simultaneous heat and ionization readout to reject the electromagnetic backgrounds (gamma, beta, x-rays). We present the status of its front-end electronics. The first stage of amplification is made of High Electron Mobility Transistors developed by CNRS/C2N laboratory, optimized to achieve ultra-low noise performance at 1 K with a dissipation as low as 15
μ
W per channel. Our noise model predicts that 10 eV heat and 20 eV
ee
RMS baseline resolutions are feasible with a high dynamic range for the deposited energy (up to 10 MeV) thanks to loop amplification schemes. Such resolutions are mandatory to have a high discrimination power between nuclear and electron recoils at the lowest energies.
Increasing age and carrying an APOEε4 allele are well established risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The earlier age of onset of AD observed in ε4-carriers may reflect an accelerated aging ...process. We recently reported that APOE genotype modulates brain function decades before the appearance of any cognitive or clinical symptoms. Here we test the hypothesis that APOE influences brain aging by comparing healthy ε4-carriers and non-carriers, using the same imaging protocol in distinct groups of younger and older healthy volunteers.
A cross-sectional factorial design was used to examine the effects of age and APOE genotype, and their interaction, on fMRI activation during an encoding memory task. The younger (N=36; age range 20–35; 18 ε4-carriers) and older (35 middle-age/elderly; age range 50–78years; 15 ε4-carriers) healthy volunteers taking part in the study were cognitively normal. We found a significant interaction between age and ε4-status in the hippocampi, frontal pole, subcortical nuclei, middle temporal gyri and cerebellum, such that aging was associated with decreased activity in e4-carriers and increased activity in non-carriers. Reduced cerebral blood flow was found in the older ε4-carriers relative to older non-carriers despite preserved grey matter volume.
Overactivity of brain function in young ε4-carriers is disproportionately reduced with advancing age even before the onset of measurable memory impairment. The APOE genotype determines age-related changes in brain function that may reflect the increased vulnerability of ε4-carriers to late-life pathology or cognitive decline.
►APOE genotype has different consequences for brain function depending on age. ►Differential aging processes in ε4-carriers may underlie increased risk of old-age pathology. ►Functional imaging techniques are sensitive to the effects of APOE on brain physiology. ►Our results may explain inconsistencies in the literature on APOE and brain function.
The future
Ricochet
experiment aims to search for new physics in the electroweak sector by measuring the Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering process from reactor antineutrinos with high ...precision down to the sub-100 eV nuclear recoil energy range. While the
Ricochet
collaboration is currently building the experimental setup at the reactor site, it is also finalizing the cryogenic detector arrays that will be integrated into the cryostat at the Institut Laue Langevin in early 2024. In this paper, we report on recent progress from the Ge cryogenic detector technology, called the CryoCube. More specifically, we present the first demonstration of a 30 eVee (electron equivalent) baseline ionization resolution (RMS) achieved with an early design of the detector assembly and its dedicated High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) based front-end electronics with a total input capacitance of about 40 pF. This represents an order of magnitude improvement over the best ionization resolutions obtained on similar phonon-and-ionization germanium cryogenic detectors from the EDELWEISS and SuperCDMS dark matter experiments, and a factor of three improvement compared to the first fully-cryogenic HEMT-based preamplifier coupled to a CDMS-II germanium detector with a total input capacitance of 250 pF. Additionally, we discuss the implications of these results in the context of the future
Ricochet
experiment and its expected background mitigation performance.
Results from a prototype TES detector for the Ricochet experiment Augier, C.; Baulieu, G.; Belov, V. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
12/2023, Letnik:
1057
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) offers valuable sensitivity to physics beyond the Standard Model. The Ricochet experiment will use cryogenic solid-state detectors to perform a ...precision measurement of the CEνNS spectrum induced by the high neutrino flux from the Institut Laue-Langevin nuclear reactor. The experiment will employ an array of detectors, each with a mass of ∼30 g and a targeted energy threshold of 50 eV. Nine of these detectors (the “Q-Array”) will be based on a novel Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) readout style, in which the TES devices are thermally coupled to the absorber using a gold wire bond. We present initial characterization of a Q-Array-style detector using a 1 gram silicon absorber, obtaining a baseline root-mean-square resolution of less than 40 eV.
Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is associated with malignant arrhythmias and sudden death from birth to advanced age. Prolongation of the QT-interval, may however be concealed on standard electrocardiograms ...(ECG). The brisk-standing-test (BST) was developed to guide LQTS-diagnosis and treatment in adults. We hypothesized that the BST may be used in prepubertal children to identify LQTS subjects. Accordingly, reference values for the BST should be available to prevent incorrect diagnosis and treatment of LQTS. In this study, we aim to present reference values for prepubertal children.
Healthy, prepubertal children, aged 7-13 years underwent a standard supine resting ECG and during continuous ECG recording performed a BST. The QT-interval and heart rate corrected QTc were measured during the different BST stages. Fifty-seven children, 29 boys (10.2 ± 1.1 years) and 28 girls (9.9 ± 1.1 years) were included. Baseline characteristics and response to standing were not statistically different for boys and girls: mean supine pre-standing heart rate 74 ± 9 vs. 77 ± 9 bpm, supine pre-standing QTc 406 ± 27 vs. 407 ± 17 ms, maximal heart rate upon standing 109 ± 11 vs. 112 ± 11 bpm, and QTc at maximal heart rate 484 ± 29 vs. 487 ± 35 ms. The QT interval corrected for heart rate-prolongation at maximal tachycardia after standing was 79 ± 26 (19-144) ms, which is significantly longer than previously published values in adults (50± 30 ms).
The QT interval corrected for heart rate prolongation after brisk standing in healthy prepubertal children is more pronounced than in healthy adults. This finding advocates distinct prepubertal cut-off values because using adult values for prepubertal children would yield false positive results with the risk of incorrect LQTS-diagnosis and overtreatment.
The future
Ricochet
experiment aims at searching for new physics in the electroweak sector by providing a high precision measurement of the Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CENNS) ...process down to the sub-100 eV nuclear recoil energy range. The experiment will deploy a kg-scale low-energy-threshold detector array combining Ge and Zn target crystals 8.8 m away from the 58 MW research nuclear reactor core of the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France. Currently, the
Ricochet
Collaboration is characterizing the backgrounds at its future experimental site in order to optimize the experiment’s shielding design. The most threatening background component, which cannot be actively rejected by particle identification, consists of keV-scale neutron-induced nuclear recoils. These initial fast neutrons are generated by the reactor core and surrounding experiments (reactogenics), and by the cosmic rays producing primary neutrons and muon-induced neutrons in the surrounding materials. In this paper, we present the
Ricochet
neutron background characterization using
3
He proportional counters which exhibit a high sensitivity to thermal, epithermal and fast neutrons. We compare these measurements to the
Ricochet
Geant4 simulations to validate our reactogenic and cosmogenic neutron background estimations. Eventually, we present our estimated neutron background for the future
Ricochet
experiment and the resulting CENNS detection significance. Our results show that depending on the effectiveness of the muon veto, we expect a total nuclear recoil background rate between 44 ± 3 and 9 ± 2 events/day/kg in the CENNS region of interest, i.e. between 50 eV and 1 keV. We therefore found that the
Ricochet
experiment should reach a statistical significance of 4.6 to 13.6
σ
for the detection of CENNS after one reactor cycle, when only the limiting neutron background is considered.