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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Development and application of a low-noise, high-speed optical detector module for carbon density fluctuation measurements on Wendelstein 7-X

A low-noise, high-speed optical detector module is characterized and successfully commissioned for the measurement of high-frequency, low-intensity beam emission on Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X). An ultra-narrow bandpass optical filter is employed to selectively transmit the desired emission line while suppressing broadband plasma background emissions. Carbon density fluctuations are investigated by observing the carbon C-VI emission line (n = 8 → 7, λ ∼ 529 nm), arising from charge exchange (CX) between the neutral beam atoms and the intrinsic carbon population. Here, we present the characterization of the optical detector module and experimental measurements of carbon density fluctuations using available fibers on W7-X. The initial performance of the detector is presented in both active and passive CX measurements of intrinsic carbon density fluctuations. The low frequency dynamics of fluctuation is observed in response to the neutral beam and the pellet injection, demonstrating that the optical detector module is capable of providing a sufficient signal level with an adequate signal-to-noise ratio. In the upcoming OP2.4 campaign, this optical detector module will be adapted for use in a beam emission spectroscopy system by replacing the optical bandpass filter with one centered at 654 nm (90% transmission: 653–655.3 nm), which facilitates two-dimensional measurements of ion gyro-scale turbulence on W7-X.

Charge exchange recombination spectroscopy↗
DOE OSTI2017

Search for short-baseline oscillations at the NOvA Near Detector

Anomalous results from past neutrino experiments have been interpreted as potential evidence for an additional sterile neutrino with a mass on order of 1 eV, but this evidence remains inconclusive. The NOvA Near Detector is a 300 ton almost fully-active fine- grained liquid scintillator detector, that was designed for electron-neutrino identification. The detector is placed along the Fermilab NuMI beam line 1 km from the target and 14.6 mrad off-axis. At this off-axis angle the detector is exposed to a narrow band beam peaked at 2 GeV. Therefore the NOvA Near Detector will see neutrinos with a L/E range that is sensitive to oscillations between active neutrinos and light sterile neutrinos. In this report we discuss NOvA sensitivity from the joint electron-neutrino disappearance and muon-neutrino disappearance analysis search for short-baseline sterile neutrino mixing.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Diamond detectors for the TOTEM timing upgrade

This paper describes the design and the performance of the timing detector developed by the TOTEM Collaboration for the Roman Pots (RPs) to measure the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) of the protons produced in central diffractive interactions at the LHC . The measurement of the TOF of the protons allows the determination of the longitudinal position of the proton interaction vertex and its association with one of the vertices reconstructed by the CMS detectors. The TOF detector is based on single crystal Chemical Vapor Deposition (scCVD) diamond plates and is designed to measure the protons TOF with about 50 ps time precision. This upgrade to the TOTEM apparatus will be used in the LHC run 2 and will tag the central diffractive events up to an interaction pileup of about 1. A dedicated fast and low noise electronics for the signal amplification has been developed. The digitization of the diamond signal is performed by sampling the waveform. In conclusion, after introducing the physics studies that will most profit from the addition of these new detectors, we discuss in detail the optimization and the performance of the first TOF detector installed in the LHC in November 2015.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Production and tests of the ADDC for the Micromegas detector of the ATLAS New Small Wheel

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will perform a series of upgrades to allow luminosity increases during the next physics runs expected from 2022 on. These will also significantly increase the trigger rates of all the detectors. As part of the ATLAS Phase-I upgrade, the current Small Wheel muon detectors will be replaced with state-of-the-art New Small Wheel (NSW) detectors to cope with the increased luminosity of the LHC. The Address in Real Time Data Driver Card (ADDC) is designed to transmit the trigger data from the resistive Micro-Mesh Gaseous Structure (Micromegas) detectors of the NSW. The ART ASIC on the ADDC is a customdesigned chip to receive theAddress in Real Time (ART) signals from theVMMfront-end ASIC and perform hit-selection processing. The processed trigger data is then sent to the Trigger Processor (TP) through optical links. A total of 512 ADDCs will be installed on the detector close to the front-end boards. Therefore, those cards must be able to work properly in a high radiation and magnetic field environment. Furthermore, after four rounds of prototyping, the ADDC production was launched in January of 2019. 600 ADDC boards have been produced and tested with an automated test stand. This test setup can simulate the front-end signals and provide "Level-1 Data Driver Card" (L1DDC) functions as well as part of the TP functions. Thus, the ADDC functionality and stability can be verified without the remaining NSW electronics. This paper describes the ADDC hardware prototype development, radiation and integration testing, and the ADDC automated production test procedure.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Measurements of sensor radiation damage in the ATLAS inner detector using leakage currents

Non-ionizing energy loss causes bulk damage to the silicon sensors of the ATLAS pixel and strip detectors. This damage has important implications for data-taking operations, charged-particle track reconstruction, detector simulations, and physics analysis. This paper presents simulations and measurements of the leakage current in the ATLAS pixel detector and semiconductor tracker as a function of location in the detector and time, using data collected in Run 1 (2010-2012) and Run 2 (2015-2018) of the Large Hadron Collider. The extracted fluence shows a much stronger |z|-dependence in the innermost layers than is seen in simulation. Furthermore, the overall fluence on the second innermost layer is significantly higher than in simulation, with better agreement in layers at higher radii. These measurements are important for validating the simulation models and can be used in part to justify safety factors for future detector designs and interventions.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

A D$_2$O detector for flux normalization of a pion decay-at-rest neutrino source

We report on the technical design and expected performance of a 592 kg heavy-water-Cherenkov detector to measure the absolute neutrino flux from the pion-decay-at-rest neutrino source at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The detector will be located roughly 20 m from the SNS target and will measure the neutrino flux with better than 5% statistical uncertainty in 2 years. This heavy-water detector will serve as the first module of a two-module detector system to ultimately measure the neutrino flux to 2–3% at both the First Target Station and the planned Second Target Station of the SNS. This detector will significantly reduce a dominant systematic uncertainty for neutrino cross-section measurements at the SNS, increasing the sensitivity of searches for new physics.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Energy resolution of the LZ detector for high-energy electronic recoils

The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) detector is a dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC) installed at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (Lead, South Dakota) at a depth of 1478 meters. Although the main objective of LZ is the direct detection of dark matter, its low background environment allows for the search of other rare processes, such as the neutrinoless double beta decay of xenon isotopes 134 Xe and 136 Xe with the respective Q-values of 826 keV and 2458 keV. The sensitivity of the detector to these decays is directly determined by the energy resolution, which, in turn, is degraded by non-uniformities in detector response. In this work, we present a novel method to correct, in the data, the non-uniformity of the light collected by an array of photosensors in a scintillation detector. This method is based on the knowledge of the light response functions of individual photosensors. With these techniques, we report, at a very early phase of the detector operations, a state-of-the-art energy resolution (σ/μ) of (0.67 ± 0.01)% at 2614 keV for the fiducial volume of 5.6 tonnes of liquid xenon.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2026

Cryogenic light detectors with thermal signal amplification for 0 νββ search experiments

As a step towards the realization of cryogenic-detector experiments to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (such as CROSS, BINGO, and CUPID), we investigated a batch of 10 Ge light detectors (LDs) assisted by Neganov-Trofimov-Luke (NTL) signal amplification. Each LD was assembled with a large cubic light-emitting crystal (45 mm side) using the recently developed CROSS mechanical structure. The detector array was operated at milli-Kelvin temperatures in a pulse-tube cryostat at the Canfranc underground laboratory in Spain. We achieved good performance with scintillating bolometers from CROSS, made of Li 2 100 MoO 4 crystals and used as reference detectors of the setup, and with all LDs tested (except for a single device that encountered an electronics issue). No leakage current was observed for 8 LDs with an electrode bias up to 100 V. Operating the LDs at an 80 V electrode bias applied in parallel, we obtained a gain of around 9 in the signal-to-noise ratio of these devices, allowing us to achieve a baseline noise RMS of O(10 eV). Thanks to the strong current polarization of the temperature sensors, the time response of the devices was reduced to around half a millisecond in rise time. The achieved performance of the LDs was extrapolated via simulations of pile-up rejection capability for several configurations of the CUPID detector structure. Despite the sub-optimal noise conditions of the LDs (particularly at high frequencies), we demonstrated that the NTL technology provides a viable solution for background reduction in CUPID.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Measurement of muon neutrino induced charged current interactions without charged pions in the final state using a new T2K off-axis near detector WAGASCI-BabyMIND

We report a flux-integrated cross section measurement of muon neutrino interactions on water and hydrocarbon via charged current reactions without charged pions in the final state with the WAGASCI-BabyMIND detector, which was installed in the T2K near detector hall in 2018. The detector is located 1.5° off-axis and is exposed to a more energetic neutrino flux than ND280, another T2K near detector, which is located at a different off-axis position. The total flux-integrated cross section is measured to be 1.26 ± 0.18⁢(stat+syst) × 10 −39 cm 2 /nucleon on CH and 1.44 ± 0.21⁢(stat+syst) × 10 −39 cm 2 /nucleon on H 2 ⁡O. These results are compared to model predictions provided by the neut v5.3.2 and genie v2.8.0 Monte Carlo generators and the measurements are compatible with these models. Differential cross sections in muon momentum and cosine of the muon scattering angle are also reported. This is the first such measurement reported with the WAGASCI-BabyMIND detector and utilizes the 2020 and 2021 datasets.

lepton-hadron interactions↗
DOE OSTI2024

Directional response of several geometries for reactor-neutrino detectors

Here we have modeled six abstracted detector designs, with the goal of determining their ability to resolve the direction to an antineutrino source, including two for which we have operational data for validating our computer modeling and analytical processes. We have found that the most promising options, regardless of scale and range, have angular resolutions on the order of a few degrees, which is better than any yet achieved in practice by a factor of at least two. We examine and compare several approaches to detector geometry for their ability not only to detect the inverse beta decay (IBD) reaction, but also to determine the source direction of incident antineutrinos. The information from these detectors provides insight into reactor power and burning profile, which is especially useful in constraining the clandestine production of weapons material. In a live deployment, a nonproliferation detector must be able to isolate the subject reactor, possibly from a field of much-larger power reactors; directional sensitivity can help greatly with this task. We also discuss implications for using such detectors in longer-distance observation of reactors, from a few kilometers to hundreds of kilometers.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

Detection prospects of core-collapse supernovae with supernova-optimized third-generation gravitational-wave detectors

We discuss how to optimize the third-generation gravitational-wave detector to maximize the range to detect core-collapse supernovae. Based on three-dimensional simulations for core-collapse and the corresponding gravitational-wave waveform emitted, the corresponding detection range for these waveforms is limited to within our Galaxy even in the era of third-generation detectors. The corresponding event rate is two per century. We find from the waveforms that to detect core-collapse supernovae with an event rate of one per year, the gravitational-wave detectors need a strain sensitivity of 3 × 10 -27 Hz -1/2 in a frequency range from 100 to 1500 Hz. We also explore detector configurations technologically beyond the scope of third-generation detectors. We find with these improvements, the event rate for gravitational-wave observations from core-collapse supernovae is still low, but is improved to one in twenty years.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Surface background suppression in liquid argon dark matter detectors using a newly discovered time component of tetraphenyl-butadiene scintillation

Here, decays of radioisotopes on inner detector surfaces can pose a major background concern for the direct detection of dark matter. While these backgrounds are conventionally mitigated with position cuts, these cuts reduce the exposure of the detector by decreasing the sensitive mass, and uncertainty in position determination may make it impossible to adequately remove such events in certain detectors. In this paper, we provide a new technique for substantially reducing these surface backgrounds in liquid argon (LAr) detectors, independent of position cuts. These detectors typically use a coating of tetraphenyl-butadiene (TPB) on the inner surfaces as a wavelength shifter to convert vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) LAr scintillation light to the visible spectrum. We find that TPB scintillation contains a component with a previously unreported exceptionally long lifetime (~ms). We discovered that this component differs significantly in magnitude between alpha, beta, and VUV excitation, which enables the use of pulse shape discrimination to suppress surface backgrounds by more than a factor of 10 3 with negligible loss of dark matter sensitivity. We also discuss how this technique can be extended beyond just LAr experiments.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

In situ X-ray area detector flat-field correction at an operating photon energy without flat illumination

Flat-field calibration of X-ray area detectors is a challenge due to the inability to generate an X-ray flat-field at the selected photon energy the beamline operates at, which has a strong influence on the measurement behavior of the detector. A method is presented in which a simulated flat-field correction is calculated without flat-field measurements. Instead, a series of quick scattering measurements from an amorphous scatterer is used to calculate a flat-field response. The ability to rapidly obtain a flat-field response allows for recalibration of an X-ray detector as needed without significant expenditure of either time or effort. Area detectors on the beamlines used, such as the Pilatus 2M CdTe, PE XRD1621 and Varex XRD 4343CT, were found to have detector responses that drift slightly over timescales of several weeks or after exposure to high photon flux, suggesting the need to more frequently recalibrate with a new flat-field correction map.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

On Feature, Classifier and Detector Fusers for 235U Signatures Using Gamma Spectral Counts

Three types of information fusion strategies are studied to assess the performance of classifiers for detecting low-level 235 U radiation sources, using features obtained from gamma spectra of NaI detectors. These three strategies are based on using two spectral region features, fusing eight classifiers of diverse designs, and fusing multiple detectors located at different positions around the source. The inner, middle and outer groups of detectors, within a formation of two concentric circles and a spiral of 21 detectors, are identified based on their distance to the source, which is located at the center. This study provides two main qualitative insights into this classification task. First, the fusion of detectors leads to an overall improved classification performance, least in the inner group, most in the outer group, and in between for the middle group. Second, several classifiers and fusers achieve lower training error which does not translate to lower generalization error, indicating their over-fitting to training data.

Rao, Nageswara↗
DOE OSTI2018

A Frequency Domain Multiplexing Technique for Multi-Channel Detector Instrumentation

Radiation detection often requires several detectors to be employed at once. Normally, each detector outputs a signal that must be transported, digitized, and stored. One common format for these signals is a finite, aperiodic pulse. Since the detector and data acquisition system are not necessarily physically close, transporting signals from several detectors to a central data acquisition system often requires the use of many cables. The technique presented here allows for the combination and later recovery of a number of analog detector signals using a single cable, by shifting their content to narrow bands in the frequency domain and summing them together into a single channel for transmission. The output is a linear combination of decaying sinusoids, whose peak frequencies and bandwidths in the frequency domain are controlled by inductor, resistor, and capacitor values in the circuit. By separating the outputs by several megahertz, and lowering the bandwidth to about 1 MHz, we can isolate each signal. The timing of the original input can be recovered by taking the inverse Fourier transform of the isolated peak and identifying the start time of the resulting single decaying sinusoid. The energy of the input signal is proportional to the square root of the integral of the corresponding power spectrum peak. We show that energy spectra can be reconstructed with minimal additions to energy resolution. We also show that coincidence timing measurements can be performed with an uncertainty smaller than 2 ns. The result is an N to 1 reduction in cabling, with obvious cost and complexity gains. Since most of the signal content exists only in a band around each peak frequency, noise outside of these bands does not impact the performance.

Belling, Samuel↗
DOE OSTI2019

FELIX-Based Readout of the Single-Phase ProtoDUNE Detector

Large liquid argon (LAr) time projection chambers (TPCs) have been adopted for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) experiment's far detector, which will be composed of four 17-kton detectors situated 1.5 km underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This represents a large increase in scale compared to existing experiments. Both single- and dual-phase technologies will be validated at CERN, in cryostats capable of accommodating full-size detector modules, and exposed to low-energy charged particle beams. This program, called ProtoDUNE, also allows for extensive tests of data acquisition strategies. The Front-End LInk eXchange (FELIX) readout system was initially developed within the ATLAS collaboration and is based on custom field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based Peripheral Component Interconnect Express input/output cards, connected through point-to-point links to the detector front end and hosted in commodity servers. FELIX will be used in the single-phase ProtoDUNE setup to read the data coming from 2560 anode wires organized in a single anode plane assembly (APS) structure. With a continuous readout at a sampling rate of 2 MHz, the system must deal with an input rate of 96 Gb/s. An external trigger will preselect time windows of 5 ms with interesting activity expected inside the detector. Event building will occur for triggered events, at a target rate of 25 Hz; the readout system will form fragments from the data samples matching the time window, carry out lossless compression, and forward the data to event building nodes over 10-Gb/s Ethernet. This paper discusses the design and implementation of this readout system as well as the first operational experience.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cherenkov photon background for low-noise silicon detectors in space

Future space observatories dedicated to direct imaging and spectroscopy of extra-solar planets will require ultra-low-noise detectors that are sensitive over a broad range of wavelengths. Silicon charge-coupled devices (CCDs), such as EMCCDs, Skipper CCDs, and Multi-Amplifier Sensing CCDs, have demonstrated the ability to detect and measure single photons from ultra-violet to near-infrared wavelengths, making them candidate technologies for this application. In this context, we study a relatively unexplored source of low-energy background coming from Cherenkov radiation produced by energetic charged particles traversing a silicon detector. In the intense radiation environment of space, energetic cosmic rays produce high-energy tracks and more extended halos of low-energy Cherenkov photons, which are detectable with ultra-low-noise detectors. We present a model of this effect that is calibrated to laboratory data, and we use this model to characterize the residual background rate for ultra-low noise silicon detectors in space. We find that the rate of cosmic-ray-induced Cherenkov photon production is comparable to other detector and astrophysical backgrounds that have previously been considered.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

A combined time-of-flight and depth-of-interaction detector for total-body positron emission tomography

Purpose: In support of a project to build a total-body PET scanner with an axial field-of-view of 2 m, the authors are developing simple, cost-effective block detectors with combined time-of-flight (TOF) and depth-of-interaction (DOI) capabilities. Methods: This work focuses on investigating the potential of phosphor-coated crystals with conventional PMT-based block detector readout to provide DOI information while preserving timing resolution. The authors explored a variety of phosphor-coating configurations with single crystals and crystal arrays. Several pulse shape discrimination techniques were investigated, including decay time, delayed charge integration (DCI), and average signal shapes. Results: Pulse shape discrimination based on DCI provided the lowest DOI positioning error: 2 mm DOI positioning error was obtained with single phosphor-coated crystals while 3–3.5 mm DOI error was measured with the block detector module. Minimal timing resolution degradation was observed with single phosphor-coated crystals compared to uncoated crystals, and a timing resolution of 442 ps was obtained with phosphor-coated crystals in the block detector compared to 404 ps without phosphor coating. Flood maps showed a slight degradation in crystal resolvability with phosphor-coated crystals; however, all crystals could be resolved. Energy resolution was degraded by 3%–7% with phosphor-coated crystals compared to uncoated crystals. Conclusions: These results demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining TOF–DOI capabilities with simple block detector readout using phosphor-coated crystals.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗