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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

In-pixel integration of signal processing and AI/ML based data filtering for particle tracking detectors

We present the first physical realization of in-pixel signal processing with integrated AI-based data filtering for particle tracking detectors. Building on prior work that demonstrated a physics-motivated edge-AI algorithm suitable for ASIC implementation, this work marks a significant milestone toward intelligent silicon trackers. Our prototype readout chip performs real-time data reduction at the sensor level while meeting stringent requirements on power, area, and latency. The chip is taped-out in 28nm TSMC CMOS bulk process, which has been shown to have sufficient radiation hardness for particle experiments. This development represents a key step toward enabling fully on-detector edge AI, with broad implications for data throughput and discovery potential in high-rate, high-radiation environments such as the High-Luminosity LHC.

Parpillon, Benjamin [Fermilab; Illinois U., Chicag↗
NASA NTRS1972

Large Silver Halide Single Crystals as Charged Particle Track Detectors

The trajectory of the particle is made visible under a microscope by the accumulation of metallic silver at regions of the lattice damaged by the particle. This decoration of the particle track is accomplished by exposure of the crystal to light. The decoration of normally present lattice imperfections such as dislocations can be suppressed by the addition to the crystal of less than ten parts per million of a suitable polyvalent metal impurity. An account of some preliminary attempts to grow thin single crystals of AgCl is given also, and suggestions for a more refined technique are offered.

Kusmiss, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS1973

On particle track detectors

Aqueous sodium hydroxide is widely used to develop charged particle tracks in polycarbonate film, particularly Lexan. The chemical nature of the etching process for this system has been determined. A method employing ultra-violet absorbance was developed for monitoring the concentration of the etch products in solution. Using this method it was possible to study the formation of the etching solution saturated in etch products. It was found that the system super-saturates to a significant extent before precipitation occurs. It was also learned that the system approaches its equilibrium state rather slowly. It is felt that both these phenomena may be due to the presence of surfactant in the solution. In light of these findings, suggestions are given regarding the preparation and maintenance of the saturated etch solution. Two additional research projects, involving automated techniques for particle track analysis and particle identification using AgCl crystals, are briefly summarized.

Benton, E. V.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Using machine learning for particle track identification in the CLAS12 detector

Particle track reconstruction is the most computationally intensive process in nuclear physics experiments. Traditional algorithms use a combinatorial approach that exhaustively tests track measurements ("hits") to identify those that form an actual particle trajectory. In this article, we describe the development of four machine learning (ML) models that assist the tracking algorithm by identifying valid track candidates from the measurements in drift chambers. Several types of machine learning models were tested, including: Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLP), Extremely Randomized Trees (ERT) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN). As a result of this work, an MLP network classifier was implemented as part of the CLAS12 reconstruction software to provide the tracking code with recommended track candidates. The resulting software achieved accuracy of greater than 99% and resulted in an end-to-end speedup of 35% compared to existing algorithms.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1973

Lunar surface cosmic ray experiment S-152, Apollo 16

This investigation was directed at determining the energy spectra and abundances of low energy heavy cosmic rays (0.03 E or = 150 MeV/nucleon). The cosmic rays were detected using plastic and glass particle track detectors. Particles emitted during the 17 April 1972 solar flare dominated the spectra for energies below about 70 MeV/nucleon. Two conclusions emerge from the low energy data: (1) The differential energy spectra for solar particles vary rapidly for energies as low as 0.05 MeV/nucleon for iron-group nuclei. (2) The abundance ratio of heavy elements changes with energy at low energies; heavy elements are enhanced relative to higher elements increasingly as the energy decreases. Galactic particle fluxes recorded within the spacecraft are in agreement with those predicted taking into account solar modulation and spacecraft shielding. The composition of the nuclei at energies above 70 MeV/nucleon imply that these particles originate outside the solar system and hence are galactic cosmic rays.

Fleischer, R. L.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Gain characterization of LGAD sensors with beta particles and 28-MeV protons

Low Gain Avalanche Diodes, also known as LGADs, are widely considered for fast-timing applications in high energy physics, nuclear physics, space science, medical imaging, and precision measurements of rare processes. Such devices are silicon-based and feature an intrinsic gain due to a p + -doped layer that allows the production of a controlled avalanche of carriers, with multiplication on the order of 10–100. This technology can provide time resolution on the order of 20–30 ps, and variants of this technology can provide precision tracking too. The characterization of LGAD performance has so far primarily been focused on the interaction of minimum ionizing particles for high energy and nuclear physics applications. This article expands the study of LGAD performance to highly-ionizing particles, such as 28-MeV protons, which are relevant for several future scientific applications, e.g. in biology and medical physics, among others. These studies were performed with a beam of 28-MeV protons from a tandem Van de Graaff accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory and beta particles from a ^90Sr source; these were used to characterize the response and the gain of an LGAD as a function of bias voltage and collected charge. Here, the experimental results are also compared to TCAD simulations.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Operation and performance of the CMS silicon strip tracker with proton-proton collisions at the CERN LHC

Salient aspects of the commissioning, calibration, and performance of the CMS silicon strip tracker are discussed, drawing on experience during operation with proton-proton collisions delivered by the CERN LHC. The data were obtained with a variety of luminosities. The operating temperature of the strip tracker was changed several times during this period and results are shown as a function of temperature in several cases. Details of the system performance are presented, including occupancy, signal-to-noise ratio, Lorentz angle, and single-hit spatial resolution. Saturation effects in the APV25 readout chip preamplifier observed during early Run 2 are presented, showing the effect on various observables and the subsequent remedy. Studies of radiation effects on the strip tracker are presented both for the optical readout links and the silicon sensors. The observed effects are compared to simulation, where available, and they generally agree well with expectations.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Thin film charged particle detectors

Silicon tracking detectors have grown to cover larger surface areas up to hundreds of square meters, and are even taking over other sub-detectors, such as calorimeters. However, further improvements in tracking detector performance are more likely to arise from the ability to make a low mass detector comprised of a high ratio of active sensor to inactive materials, where dead materials include electrical services, cooling, mechanical supports, etc. In addition, the cost and time to build these detectors is currently large. Therefore, advancements in the fundamental technology of tracking detectors may need to look at a more transformative approach that enables extremely large area coverage with minimal dead material and is easier and faster to build. The advancement of thin film fabrication techniques has the potential to revolutionize the next-to-next generation of particle detector experiments. Some thin film deposition techniques have already been developed and widely used in the industry to make LED screens for TVs and monitors. If large area thin film detectors on the order of several square meters can be fabricated with similar performance as current silicon technologies, they could be used in future particle physics experiments. This paper aims to review the key fundamental performance criteria of existing silicon detectors and past research to use thin films and other semi-conductor materials as particle detectors in order to explore the important considerations and challenges to pursue thin film detectors.

Solid state detectors↗
DOE OSTI2022

Beam test performance of a prototype module with Short Strip ASICs for the CMS HL-LHC tracker upgrade

The Short Strip ASIC (SSA) is one of the four front-end chips designed for the upgrade of the CMS Outer Tracker for the High Luminosity LHC. Together with the Macro-Pixel ASIC (MPA) it will instrument modules containing a strip and a macro-pixel sensor stacked on top of each other. The SSA provides both full readout of the strip hit information when triggered, and, together with the MPA, correlated clusters called stubs from the two sensors for use by the CMS Level-1 (L1) trigger system. Results from the first prototype module consisting of a sensor and two SSA chips are presented. The prototype module has been characterized at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility using a 120 GeV proton beam.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

Novel indium phosphide charged particle detector characterization with a 120 GeV proton beam

Thin film detectors which incorporate semiconductor materials other than silicon have the potential to build upon their unique material properties and offer advantages such as faster response times, operation at room temperature, and radiation hardness. To explore the possibility, promising candidate materials were selected, and particle tracking detectors were fabricated. An indium phosphide detector with a metal-intrinsic-metal structure has been fabricated for particle tracking. The detector was tested using radioactive sources and a high energy proton beam at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. In addition to its simplistic design and fabrication process, the indium phosphide particle detector showed a very fast response time of hundreds of picoseconds for the 120 GeV protons, which are comparable to the ultra-fast silicon detectors. This fast-timing response is attributed to the high electron mobility of indium phosphide. Such material properties can be leveraged to build novel detectors with superlative performance.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Expected tracking performance of the ATLAS Inner Tracker at the High-Luminosity LHC

The high-luminosity phase of LHC operations (HL-LHC), will feature a large increase in simultaneous proton-proton interactions per bunch crossing up to 200, compared with a typical leveling target of 64 in Run 3. Such an increase will create a very challenging environment in which to perform charged particle trajectory reconstruction, a task crucial for the success of the ATLAS physics program, and will exceed the capabilities of the current ATLAS Inner Detector (ID). A new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk) will replace the current ID in time for the start of the HL-LHC. To ensure successful use of the ITk capabilities in Run 4 and beyond, the ATLAS tracking software has been successfully adapted to achieve state-of-the-art track reconstruction in challenging high-luminosity conditions with the ITk detector. This paper presents the expected tracking performance of the ATLAS ITk based on the latest available developments since the ITk technical design reports.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
NASA NTRS1983

Scintillator-fiber charged particle track-imaging detector

A scintillator-fiber charged-particle track-imaging detector was developed using a bundle of square cross section plastic scintillator fiber optics, proximity focused onto an image intensified charge injection device (CID) camera. The tracks of charged particle penetrating into the scintillator fiber bundle are projected onto the CID camera and the imaging information is read out in video format. The detector was exposed to beams of 15 MeV protons and relativistic Neon, Manganese, and Gold nuclei and images of their tracks were obtained. Details of the detector technique, properties of the tracks obtained, and preliminary range measurements of 15 MeV protons stopping in the fiber bundle are presented.

Binns, W. R.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Scintillator-fiber charged-particle track-imaging detector

A scintillator-fiber charged-particle track-imaging detector has been developed using a bundle of square cross-section plastic scintillator fiber optics, proximity focused onto an image intensified Charge Injection Device (CID) camera. Detector to beams of 15 MeV protons and relativistic Neon, Manganese, and Gold nuclei have been exposed and images of their tracks are obtained. This paper presents details of the detector technique, properties of the tracks obtained, and range measurements of 15 MeV protons stopping in the fiber bundle.

Binns, W. R.↗
NASA NTRS1972

High Z particle Apollo astronaut dosimetry with plastics

On Apollo missions, the individual astronauts' high Z particle exposure is measured by means of Lexan polycarbonate plastic. These layers form one component of the passive dosimetry packets worn in the constant wear garment. They serve as threshold type, high Z, charged particle track detectors, recording only the very highly ionizing particles. The detectors yield information on the particles' charge, energy, and direction of travel. This data, in turn, is used to obtain the track fluence, the stopping particle density as an integral Z distribution, and the particles' integral LET spectrum. Some of the data gathered on Apollo missions 8-13 is presented.

Benton, E. V.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Reconstruction of neutrino events in the Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment. Part I

The Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE) was designed to reconstruct neutrino events from the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) with the parallel goals of measuring neutron production in interactions with oxygen and serving as a testbed for new technology. The ANNIE detector consists of a 26-ton water Cherenkov target tank instrumented with conventional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), a downstream tracking muon spectrometer, and an upstream double wall of plastic scintillator to serve to veto charged particles incoming from neutrino events that occur upstream of the experimental setup. ANNIE has also deployed multiple Large-Area Picosecond PhotoDetectors (LAPPDs) and a test vessel of water-based liquid scintillator (WbLS). This paper describes the event reconstruction performance of the detector before implementation of these novel technologies, which will serve as a baseline against which their impact can be measured. That said, even the techniques used for event reconstruction using only the conventional PMT array and muon spectrometer are significantly different than those used in other water Cherenkov detectors due to the small size of ANNIE (which makes nanosecond-scale timing not as useful as in a large detector) and the availability of reconstruction information from the tracking muon spectrometer. We demonstrate that combining the information from these two elements into a single fit using only pattern recognition yields a muon vertex uncertainty of 60 cm, a directional uncertainty of 13.2 degrees, and energy reconstruction uncertainty of about 10% for BNB muon neutrino Charged Current Zero Pion (CC0π) events.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Active Region Extent Assessment with X-rays (AREA-X)

The development of semiconductor sensors for new particle tracking detectors places increasing limits on sensor characteristics such as uniformity, size and shape of inefficient areas and size of active compared to inactive sensor areas. Accurately assessing these relatively subtle effects requires either measurements in particle beams or the modification of samples to be used in dedicated laser test setups. Active Region Extent Assessment with X-rays (AREA-X) has been developed as an alternative method for the fast, efficient and precise study of the active area of a semiconductor sensor. It uses a monochromatic, micro-focused X-ray beam with a 10–20 keV energy range as provided by several synchrotron beam lines and uses the photo current induced in the sensor to measure the depth of the responsive sensor volume. It can be used to study local inhomogeneities or inefficiencies, the overall extent of the active sensor volume and its shape and its localised application, which makes the need to gather statistics over a large area unnecessary, allowing for fast readout, which enables studies of the sensor behaviour at a range of external parameters, e.g. temperature or applied bias voltage. This paper presents the measurement concept and technical setup of the measurement, results from initial measurements as well as capabilities and limitations of the method.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

3D Integrated Sensing Solutions

We will present the proposed research project to develop 3D-integrated sensors using advanced manufacturing capability for novel sensors, heterogeneously integrated with energy efficient readout circuits. The lack of precision timing in particle tracking detectors and the absence of low power, high throughput communications solutions to read them out limits progress in multiple fields of fundamental science. The aim of the project is to develop technology to enable large-scale particle detectors with 3D-integrated ASIC designs to simultaneously achieve 10 μm position resolution and 10 ps precision timing, with low-power consumption and high throughput rates. This research program leverages the unique combination of facilities and cross-disciplinary expertise of scientists and engineers at SLAC, FNAL, and LLNL and industrial partners.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗