Cherenkov Radiation Detector Research Articles

Search for a new material for a medical Cherenkov radiation detector

In this work, using Geant4, we simulate a time-of-flight positron emission tomography detector based on Cherenkov radiation. We consider various materials as a basis for the detector, including a pure PMMA and PMMA used as a matrix containing small resonant particles of copper and gold. For that, in CST studio, we determine the dielectric permittivity for a composite material, which we then use for simulations in Geant4. The resonant nature of the small metal particles allows producing Cherenkov photons by secondary electrons with lower energy, increasing the output of the radiated photons. We consider it as the way to increase temporal resolution as well as efficiency of the detector.

Detector challenges of the strong-field QED experiment LUXE at the European XFEL

The LUXE experiment aims at studying high-field QED in electron-laser and photon-laser interactions, with the 16.5 GeV electron beam of the European XFEL and a laser beam with power of up to 350 TW. This experiment will use one electron bunch out of 2700 bunches per train from XFEL. The experiment will measure the multiplicity spectra of electrons, positrons and photons in expected ranges of 10-3 to 109 particles per 1 Hz bunch crossing, depending on the laser power and focus. These measurements have to be performed in the presence of low-energy high radiation-background. To meet these challenges, for high-rate electron and photon fluxes, the experiment will use Cherenkov radiation detectors, scintillator screens, sapphire sensors as well as lead-glass monitors for backscattering off the beam-dump. A four layer silicon-pixel tracker and a compact electromagnetic tungsten calorimeter with GaAs sensors will be used to measure the positron spectra. The layout of the experiment and the expected performance under the harsh radiation conditions will be presented. Beam tests for the Cherenkov detector and the electromagnetic calorimeter were performed at DESY recently and results will be presented. The experiment received a stage 0 critical approvement (CD0) from the DESY management and is in the process of preparing its technical design report (TDR). It is expected to start running in 2025/6.

Analysis and design of transition radiation in layered uniaxial crystals using tandem neural networks

With the flourishing development of nanophotonics, a Cherenkov radiation pattern can be designed to achieve superior performance in particle detection by fine-tuning the properties of metamaterials such as photonic crystals (PCs) surrounding the swift particle. However, the radiation pattern can be sensitive to the geometry and material properties of PCs, such as periodicity, unit thickness, and dielectric fraction, making direct analysis and inverse design difficult. In this paper, we propose a systematic method to analyze and design PC-based transition radiation, which is assisted by deep learning neural networks. By matching boundary conditions at the interfaces, effective Cherenkov radiation of multilayered structures can be resolved analytically using the cascading scattering matrix method, despite the optical axes not being aligned with the swift electron trajectory. Once properly trained, forward deep learning neural networks can be utilized to predict the radiation pattern without further direct electromagnetic simulations. In addition, tandem neural networks have been proposed to inversely design the geometry and/or material properties for the desired effective Cherenkov radiation pattern. Our proposal demonstrates a promising strategy for dealing with layered-medium-based effective Cherenkov radiation detectors, and it can be extended to other emerging metamaterials, such as photonic time crystals.

Detector challenges of the strong-field QED experiment LUXE at the European XFEL

The LUXE experiment aims at studying high-field QED in electron–laser and photon–laser interactions, with the 16.5 GeV electron beam of the European XFEL and a laser beam with power of up to 350 TW. The experiment will measure the spectra of electrons, positrons and photons in the expected range of 10−3 to 109 per 1 Hz bunch crossing, depending on the laser power and focus. These measurements have to be performed in the presence of low-energy high radiation-background. To meet these challenges, for high-rate electron and photon fluxes, the experiment will use Cherenkov radiation detectors, scintillator screens, sapphire sensors as well as lead-glass monitors for backscattering off the beam-dump. A four-layer silicon-pixel tracker and a compact electromagnetic tungsten calorimeter with GaAs sensors will be used to measure the positron spectra. The layout of the experiment and the expected performance under the harsh radiation conditions, together with the test of the Cherenkov detector and the electromagnetic (EM) calorimeter performed recently at DESY, are presented. The experiment received a stage 0 critical approval (CD0) from the DESY management and is in the process of preparing its technical design report (TDR). It is expected to start running in 2025/2026.

Studies of high-field QED with the LUXE experiment at the European XFEL

The LUXE experiment aims at studying high-field QED in electron-laser and photon-laser interactions, with the 16.5 GeV electron beam of the European XFEL and a laser beam with power of up to 350 TW. The experiment will measure the spectra of electrons and photons in non-linear Compton scattering where production rates in excess of 109 are expected per 1 Hz bunch crossing. At the same time positrons from pair creation in either the two-step trident process or the Breit-Wheeler process will be measured, where the expected rates range from 10−3 to 104 per bunch crossing, depending on the laser power and focus. These measurements have to be performed in the presence of low-energy high radiation-background. To meet these challenges, for high-rate electron and photon fluxes, the experiment will use Cherenkov radiation detectors, scintillator screens, sapphire sensors as well as lead-glass monitors for back-scattering off the beam-dump. A four-layer silicon-pixel tracker and a compact sampling electromagnetic calorimeter will be used to measure the positron spectra. The layout of the experiment and the expected performance under the harsh radiation conditions will be presented.

Proton range monitoring based on picosecond detection using a Cherenkov radiation detector: A Monte Carlo study

In this study, we analyzed the performance of a PbF2 crystal-based detector at proton range monitoring with Monte Carlo simulations. The correlations between the depth–dose and Cherenkov profiles showed that the changes in the peak position in the Cherenkov profiles corresponded to the changes in the corresponding depth–dose profiles. Moreover, the deviations between the changes in the peak positions in the two curves were generally less than 2 mm. The results also showed that the actual proton range could be obtained using flight time information. When the proton energy was 160 MeV, the peak position detected in the Cherenkov profile detected was 14.83 cm with a flight time of 5.3–5.4 ns (starting from the time when protons were emitted), and the actual proton range in polymethyl-methacrylate was 15 cm. Therefore, the accuracy of the proton range measurements could be improved and the absolute range obtained by using the fast and time-sensitive characteristics of the proposed Cherenkov radiator.

Estimating Uncertainties in the Reactor Neutrino Directionality Using Liquid Scintillator with Monte Carlo Simulation

This paper describes in detail the uncertainties due to several factors that may affect the direction vector of a reactor neutrino in a liquid scintillation detector. The reactor neutrino direction vector was reconstructed through a charge weighting method. The paper simulates the response of gadolinium-loaded, liquid scintillator detector to reactor electron anti-neutrinos. The reaction is based on neutrino capture on hydro-genic protons of inverse beta decay process in the scintillator. A Cherenkov radiation detector can reconstruct the directional information of incident neutrinos relatively well, compared to the liquid scintillation detector. Statistics, spatial resolution, neutrino energy, and multi-reactor and multi-detectors are examined by using Monte Carlo simulation based on the cylindrical liquid scintillating detector model. Furthermore, this simulated model is detailed down to the optical processes, and the source of reactor fuel composition. Finally, one of the main goals is to provide the potential of the detector to measure the origin direction of the incident neutrino. Furthermore, our intention is to help understanding of various uncertainties of the neutrino directionality study for the future massive liquid scintillating neutrino detectors.

Space weather service activities and initiatives at LAMP (Argentinean Space Weather Laboratory group)

Since more than one decade ago, several institutions started to offer a large variety of Operative Space Weather (SWx) products. This is of major importance because Space Weather events can affect aviation communications, global positioning systems, grid electric power, satellite technologies, and human health in space. The scientific potential on solar-terrestrial physics in Argentina motivated the creation of an interdisciplinary Laboratory of Space Weather in Argentina. The Argentinean Space Weather Laboratory (in Spanish ‘Laboratorio Argentino de Meteorología del esPacio’, LAMP) was initiated in 2016, and it carries out daily monitoring of real-time information (space and ground-based instruments) on Space Weather. The information is synthesized on a weekly bulletin as a summary of the Space Weather conditions, and it is posted on a website (spaceweather.at.fcen.uba.ar). The analyzed information includes own data and of other centers that offer them publicly, and it is also analyzed and discussed later on, during monthly briefings. In particular, one of the regional products that is included in the briefing discussions and it was developed by LAMP in collaboration with INPE-EMBRACE, involves Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) maps in the Argentinean region. LAMP set up a Space Weather Laboratory in the Antarctic peninsula, in the Argentine Marambio base, where a Water Cherenkov radiation Detector (WCD) was installed during the Argentinean Antarctic campaign (January-March of 2019). This detector is the southern node of a Latin American Collaboration (LAGO, Latin American Giant Observatory), which is a network of WCDs installed throughout more than 10 Latin American countries.

Microchannel plate cross-talk mitigation for spatial autocorrelation measurements

Microchannel plates (MCP) are the basis for many spatially resolved single-particle detectors such as ICCD or I-sCMOS cameras employing image intensifiers (II), MCPs with delay-line anodes for the detection of cold gas particles or Cherenkov radiation detectors. However, the spatial characterization provided by an MCP is severely limited by cross-talk between its microchannels, rendering MCP and II ill-suited for autocorrelation measurements. Here, we present a cross-talk subtraction method experimentally exemplified for an I-sCMOS based measurement of pseudo-thermal light second-order intensity autocorrelation function at the single-photon level. The method merely requires a dark counts measurement for calibration. A reference cross-correlation measurement certifies the cross-talk subtraction. While remaining universal for MCP applications, the presented cross-talk subtraction, in particular, simplifies quantum optical setups. With the possibility of autocorrelation measurements, the signal needs no longer to be divided into two camera regions for a cross-correlation measurement, reducing the experimental setup complexity and increasing at least twofold the simultaneously employable camera sensor region.

Rice Husk Ash as a Renewable Source for the Production of Value Added Silica Gel and its Application: An Overview

In recent years, silica gels have developed a lot of interest due to their extraordinary properties and their existing and potential applications in science and technology. Silica gel has a wide range of applications such as a desiccant, as a preservation tool to control humidity, as an adsorbent, as a catalyst and as a cata-lyst support. Silica gel is a rigid three-dimensional network of colloidal silica, and is classified as: aqua-gel, alco-gel, xero-gel and aero-gel. Out of all known solid porous materials, aero-gels are particularly known for their high specific surface area, high porosity, low bulk density, high thermal insulation value, ultra low dielectric constant and low index of refraction. Because of these extraordinary properties silica aero-gel has many commercial applications such as thermal window insulation, acoustic barriers, super-capacitors and catalytic supports. However, monolithic silica aero-gel has been used extensively in high energy physics in Cherenkov radiation detectors and in shock wave studies at high pressures, inertial confinement fusion (ICF) radio-luminescent and micrometeorites. Silica gel can be prepared by using various sol gel precursors but the rice husk (RH) is considered as the cheapest source for silica gel production. Rice husk is a waste product abundantly available in rice producing countries during milling of rice. This review article aims at summarizing the developments carried out so far in synthesis, properties, characterization and method of determination of silica, silica gel, silica aero-gel and silica xero-gel. The effect of synthesis parameters such as pH, temperature of burning the rice husk, acid leaching prior to formation of rice husk ash (RHA) on the properties of final product are also described. The attention is also paid on the application of RH, RHA, sil-ica, silica aero-gel and silica xero-gel. Development of economically viable processes for getting rice husk silica with specific properties assumes importance at this juncture. © 2012 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Spatiotemporal structure of pulses in detectors of Cherenkov light of extensive atmospheric showers

We calculated the pulses of the Cherenkov light of extensive atmospheric showers in Cherenkov radiation detectors at the Yakutsk array in the framework of the QGSJET-II model. It is shown that the calculated width of a pulse of Cherenkov light in a vertical proton-induced shower of energy of 1018–1020 eV increases from 50 ns at a distance of 200 m from the shower axis to 700 ns at a distance of 1 km.

Automated Radioanalytical System for the Determination of 90Sr in Environmental Water Samples by 90Y Cherenkov Radiation Counting

Strontium-90 is an environmental contaminant at several U.S. Department of Energy sites, including the Hanford site, Washington. Due to its high biological toxicity and moderately long half-life of approximately 29 years, groundwater and surface water contamination plumes containing 90Sr must be closely monitored. The highly energetic beta radiation from the short-lived 90Y daughter of 90Sr generates Cherenkov photons in aqueous media that can be detected by photomultiplier tubes with good sensitivity, without the use of scintillation cocktails. A laboratory-based automated fluid handling system coupled to a Cherenkov radiation detector for measuring 90Sr via the high-energy beta decay of its daughter, 90Y, has been assembled and tested using standards prepared in Hanford groundwater. A SuperLig 620 column in the system enables preconcentration and separation of 90Sr from matrix and radiological interferences and, by removing the 90Y present in the sample, creates a pure 90Sr source from which subsequent 90Y ingrowth can be measured. This 90Y is fluidically transferred from the column to the Cherenkov detection flow cell for quantification and calculation of the original 90Sr concentration. Preconcentrating 0.35 L sample volumes by this approach, we have demonstrated a detection limit of 0.057 Bq/L using a 5 mL volume Cherenkov flow cell, which is below the drinking water limit of 0.30 Bq/L. This method does not require that the sample be at secular equilibrium prior to measurement. The system can also deliver water samples directly to the counting cell for analysis without preconcentration or separation, assuming that the sample is in secular equilibrium, with a detection limit of 7 Bq/L. The performance of the analysis method using a preconcentrating separation column is characterized in detail and compared with direct counting. This method is proposed as the basis for an automated fluidic monitor for 90Sr for unattended at-site operation.

Attenuation of acoustic waves in glacial ice and salt domes

Two classes of natural solid media, glacial ice and salt domes, are under consideration as media in which to deploy instruments for detection of neutrinos with energy ≥1018 eV. Though insensitive to 1011 to 1016 eV neutrinos for which observatories (e.g., AMANDA and IceCube) that utilize optical Cherenkov radiation detectors are designed, radio and acoustic methods are suited for searches for the very low fluxes of neutrinos with energies >1017 eV. This is because owing to the very long attenuation lengths of radio and acoustic waves produced by interactions of such neutrinos in ice and salt, detection modules can be spaced at horizontal distances ∼1 km, in contrast to the 0.12 km distances between strings of IceCube modules. In this paper, I calculate the absorption and scattering coefficients as a function of frequency and grain size for acoustic waves in glacial ice and salt domes and show that experimental measurements on laboratory samples and in glacial ice and salt domes are consistent with theory. For South Pole ice with grain size ∼0.2 cm at depths ≤600 m, scattering lengths are calculated to be 2000 and 25 km at frequencies 10 and 30 kHz, respectively; for grain size ∼0.4 cm at 1500 m (the maximum depth to be instrumented acoustically), scattering lengths are calculated to be 250 and 3 km. These are within the range of frequencies where most of the energy of the acoustic wave is concentrated. The absorption length is calculated to be 9 ± 3 km at all frequencies above ∼100 Hz. For NaCl (rock salt) with grain size 0.75 cm, scattering lengths are calculated to be 120 and 1.4 km at 10 and 30 kHz, and absorption lengths are calculated to be 3 × 104 and 3300 km at 10 and 30 kHz. Existing measurements are consistent with theory. For ice, absorption is the limiting factor; for salt, scattering is the limiting factor. Both media would be suitable for detection of acoustic waves from ultrahigh‐energy neutrino interactions.

A high-efficiency focusing Cherenkov radiation detector

A new design uses advanced technology to produce an efficient, high-bandwidth Cherenkov detector for relativistic charged particles. The detector consists of a diamond-lathe machined ultraviolet-grade Lucite radiator, a parabolic focusing mirror, and a photodiode with an S-20 cathode. This article discusses some details of the detector design and describes preliminary measurements of its response characteristics. The data show the detector to have an overall gain of ≊76 signal electrons per incident electron and a photodiode-limited response time of ≊450 ps.

Development and fabrication of an in situ Cherenkov radiation detector

A detector has been developed for field surveillance of radioactivity in groundwater in wells that are 7.6 cm in diameter or larger, but it can be adapted to on-line monitoring of industrial waste effluents and municipal water treatment plants, as well as facilities that process chemical and nuclear wastes. The detector utilizes the principle of direct Cherenkov radiation counting of energetic betas and gamma-rays in an aqueous medium. For 90Y in equilibrium with its parent 90Sr, the response of the detector was linear with increased concentrations. The estimated detection limit for 90Y supported by the parent 90Sr is ∼ 1 pCi/ml for a 1000 s counting internal.

Cherenkov detectors in cosmic ray studies

Some methods of Cherenkov radiation detector application to the study of cosmic rays and gamma astronomy at super-high energies are discussed.

The UH-nuclei cosmic ray detector on the third high energy astronomy observatory

The third High Energy Astronomy Observatory satellite (HEAO-3) carries a particle telescope for the detection of highly charged cosmic ray nuclei. These nuclei, which have Z ≳ 28, are much rarer than the lower charged nuclei in the cosmic radiation. As a consequence, this particle telescope was required to have a large collecting area as well as an ability to resolve individual elements. This paper describes the telescope, composed of large area parallel plate ionization chambers, multiwire ion chamber hodoscopes and a Cherenkov radiation detector. The resulting telescope has a total geometry factor of 59 000 cm 2 sr and is capable of measuring the charges of nuclei in the range 14 ≲ Z ≲ 120.