CHICSi—a compact ultra-high vacuum compatible detector system for nuclear reaction experiments at storage rings. I. General structure, mechanics and UHV compatibility

Abstract

CELSIUS Heavy-Ion Collision Silicon detector system (CHICSi) is a large solid angle, barrel-shaped detector system, housing up to 600 detector telescopes arranged in rotational symmetry around the beam axis. CHICSi measures charged particles and fragments from nuclear reactions. It operates at internal targets of storage rings. In order to optimize space and momentum-space coverage and minimize the low-energy detection limits, CHICSi is designed for use in ultra-high vacuum (UHV, ∼10 −8 Pa) inside a cluster-jet target chamber. This calls for materials in mechanical support, detectors, Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) electronics, connectors, cables and other signal transport devices with very low outgassing. Two auxiliary detector systems, which will operate in coincidence with CHICSi, a heavy-recoil, time-of-flight system (HR-TOF) also placed inside the target chamber and a projectile fragmentation wall (PF-WALL) located outside the chamber, have also been constructed. In total, this combined system registers more than 80% of all charged particles and fragments from typical heavy-ion reactions at energies of a few hundreds of MeV per nucleon.