Charge reconstruction of HERD silicon charge detectors based on MLP

Approved: _________________________ Thesis Supervisor ________________________ Title and Department ________________________ Date ALL OPTICAL INJECTION AND DETECTION OF BALLISTIC CHARGE AND SPIN CURRENTS IN GALLIUM ARSINIDE, GERMANIUM, AND SILICON by Eric Justin Loren A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Physics in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa

Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) experi-ment is designed to study the composition and energy spectra of cosmic-ray particles from 10^12 to 10^15 eV. ISS-CREAM was launched and deployed to the ISS in August 2017. The ISS-CREAM payload employs a Silicon Charge Detector for charge measurements, Top and Bot-tom Counting Detector for electron-hadron separation and a low-energy trigger, a Boronated Scintillator Detector for additional electron-hadron separation, and a Calorimeter (CAL) for en-ergy measurements and a high-energy trigger. The CAL is constructed of 20 layers of tungsten plates interleaved with scintillating fiber ribbons read out by hybrid-photodiodes (HPDs) and densified carbon targets. Each CAL layer is made of 3.5 mm (1 X_0) thick tungsten plates alter-nating with fifty 0.5 mm thick and 1 cm wide scintillating fiber ribbons. Consecutive layers of fiber ribbons are installed orthogonal to each other. Energy deposition in the CAL determines the particle energy and provides tracking information to determine which segment(s) of the charge detectors to use for the charge measurement. Tracking for showers is accomplished by extrapolating each shower axis back to the charge detectors. The performance of the ISS-CREAM CAL during flight is presented.

The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) instrument

The balloon-borne BACCUS experiment measures directly the elemental spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei from protons to Fe over the energy range ~10^12 to 10^15 eV. It focuses on the energy dependence of secondary to primary ratios (e.g. B/C) to investigate cosmic-ray propagation history. BACCUS consists of redundant and complementary particle detectors including the Timing Charge Detector (TCD), Transition Radiation Detector (TRD), Cherenkov Detector (CD), Silicon Charge Detector (SCD), and Calorimeter (CAL). The TCD measures the light yield produced by the particle in plastic scintillator. The TRD provides energy measurements of incident 3 ≤ Z ≤ 26 nuclei in the 102 – 105 Lorentz factor range. The CD responds only to particles with velocity exceeding the velocity of light in the plastic. It allows BACCUS to reject the abundant low energy cosmic rays present in the polar region. The CAL is used to determine the particle’s energy for all nuclei for 1 ≤ Z ≤ 26. With the SCD based on pixellation, in addition to the TCD based on timing, and the CD, the BACCUS instrument implements virtually all possible techniques to minimize the effect of backscatter on charge measurements in the presence of a large particle shower in the CAL. The 30 day flight was carried out successfully over Antarctica in 2016 from Nov. 28 to Dec. 28. The integration test, and performance of instruments will be presented.

The balloon-borne Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass experiment had its third flight (CREAM-III) over Antarctica for 29 days from December 17, 2007 to January 19, 2008. CREAM-III was designed to directly measure the elemental spectra of cosmic-ray nuclei from Hydrogen to Iron in the energy range from 10^12 to 10^15 eV. Energy of incident cosmic rays was measured with a calorimeter that consisted of a densified carbon target directly above a stack of 20 alternating layers of tungsten and scintillating fiber ribbons. Multiple charge measurements were independently made with the silicon charge detector (SCD), Cherenkov Camera (CherCam), and a Timing Charge Detector (TCD) in order to identify particles and minimize backscattering effects from the calorimeter. Compared to previous CREAM flights, the electronic noise of CREAM-III was reduced, significantly lowering the energy threshold. Results from on-going analysis of the energy spectra will be presented.

Cosmic-ray energetics and mass (CREAM) balloon project

Cosmic-ray energetics and mass (CREAM) balloon project

The Cosmic Rays Energy And Mass (CREAM) balloon payload directly measures the composition and elemental spectra of cosmic rays in the upper stratosphere. It is designed to probe the acceleration mechanism and propagation history of cosmic rays at energies from 10$^{12}$ up to 10$^{15}$ eV. Being the fifth flight in a series of seven, CREAM-V took data above Antarctica for 39 days from December 1$^{st}$ 2009 to January 8$^{th}$ 2010. The instrument comprises a tungsten/scintillating fiber calorimeter using graphite as a target for the energy measurement which had been calibrated at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). The charge measurement of the incident particles is performed by means of a Silicon Charge Detector (SCD), a Cherenkov Detector, a Cherenkov Camera (Cher-Cam) and a Timing Charge Detector (TCD). In this paper we present results from the on-going data analysis and compare them to data collected by the previous CREAM_III flight.

A method for determining the thickness of silicon charge particle detectors has been developed. The method is based on measurements of spectra from a standard 137Cs γ source, whose shape changes with detector thickness. The method can be used in the thickness range ∼50–6000 μm with an accuracy from 20 to 10%, respectively. No complex equipment or laborious calculations are needed.

Beam test of a dual layer silicon charge detector (SCD) for the CREAM experiment

The goal of the ISS-CREAM experiment is to measure spectra of cosmic-ray particles up to 1000 TeV from protons to iron nuclei. The detector was designed to complement other current space- based cosmic-ray missions, and was installed on the ISS on August 22, 2017. During 539 days of on-orbit operations, ISS-CREAM recorded over 58 million events. The instrument consists of a 4-layer silicon charge detector, a tungsten/scintillating-fiber sampling calorimeter for energy measurement, top and bottom scintillating detectors to create a trigger, and a boronated scintillator detector for additional shower sampling. A variety of subsystem issues developed during on-orbit operations, requiring careful data filtering, the development of extensive calibrations, and multiple tracking algorithms. We report on the performance of the ISS-CREAM instrument and present details of the analysis.

The High Energy cosmic Radiation Detector (HERD) is a prominent space-borne instrument to be installed on-board the Chinese Space Station (CSS) around 2027, resulting from a collaboration among Chinese and European institutions. Primary scientific goals of HERD include: precise measurements of the cosmic ray (CR) energy spectra and mass composition at energies up to few PeV, electron/positron spectra up to tens of TeV, CR anisotropy, gamma ray astronomy and transient studies, along with indirect searches for Dark Matter candidates. The detector is configured to accept incident particles from both its top and four lateral sides. Owing to its pioneering design, more than one order of magnitude increase in geometric acceptance is foreseen, with respect to previous and ongoing experiments. HERD is conceived around a deep (∼55 X 0, 3 λ I ) 3D cubic calorimeter (CALO), forming an octagonal prism. Fiber Trackers (FiTs) are instrumented on all active sides, with a Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD) covering the calorimeter and tracker. Ultimately, a Silicon Charge Detector (SCD) envelops the above-stated sub-detectors, while a Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) is instrumented on one of its lateral faces, for energy calibration in the TeV scale. This work illustrates HERD’s latest advancements and scientific objectives along with an overview of upcoming activities.

Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass for the International Space Station (ISS-CREAM) has taken 1.5 years of direct measurements of high-energy cosmic ray (HECR) particles for energies from 10$^{12}$ to 10$^{15}$ eV. HECR particle identification is significantly improved by tracking particle-detector interactions from the calorimeter (CAL) back to the Silicon Charge Detector (SCD) for charge determination. A track finding algorithm resistant to such issues as particle multiplicity, backscatter, and electronic noise will be outlined. Also, shown is the energy resolution improvement, and the resulting all particle spectrum, provided by ensuring good particle tracks. This allows ISS-CREAM to investigate how the energy distributions evolve, for protons all the way to iron nuclei, and will provide important information for models of galactic sources and HECR propagation.

The Silicon Charge Detector of the High Energy Cosmic Radiation Detection facility

Design of a silicon charge detector readout system for beam test