High Energy Particle Detector Research Articles

Measurements of low-energy, re-entrant albedo protons by the HEPD-01 space-borne detector

Cosmic rays’ interactions with the residual atmosphere surrounding the Earth produce a variety of particles, like electrons, positrons, protons, anti-protons, and Helium nuclei that can be observed below the local geomagnetic cutoff. In this work, we present new measurements of downward-going, albedo proton fluxes with kinetic energy in the range ∼40–∼250 MeV, performed by the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) on board of the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite - CSES-01 - at an altitude of ∼500 km. Employing a dedicated trajectory-tracing simulation routine, the protons collected by HEPD-01 are classified into quasi-trapped (QT), long lifetime (≳10 s) particles concentrating in the equatorial region of the Earth, and un-trapped (UT), distributed at all latitudes; the latter includes both precipitating short lifetime particles (UTS) and pseudo-trapped long lifetime (UTL) populations, abundant in the so-called penumbra regions. The temporal trend of re-entrant protons between 2018 and 2022 is also reported, assessing the stability of such population during the data-taking period of HEPD-01; this highlights their independence from the long-term modulating effect of the solar activity.

Particle content of very inclined air showers for radio signal modeling

The reconstruction of very inclined air showers is a new challenge for next-generation radio experiments such as the AugerPrime radio upgrade, BEACON, and GRAND, which focus on the detection of ultra high energy particles. To tackle this, we study the electromagnetic particle content of very inclined air showers, which has scarcely been studied so far. Using the simulation tools CORSIKA and CoREAS, and analytical modeling, we explore the energy range of the particles that contribute most to the radio emission, quantify their lateral extent, and estimate the atmospheric depth at which the radio emission is strongest. We find that the spatial distribution of the electromagnetic component in very inclined air showers has characteristic features that could lead to clear signatures in the radio signal, and hence impact the reconstruction strategies of next-generation radio-detection experiments.

Expected performance of the High Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-02) tracking system on board of the second China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite

The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) is a scientific space program that aims to deepen the comprehension of the time correlation between the main earthquake shocks and an increase in the electron flux in the inner Van Allen belt. For this purpose, the suite of payloads on board the second CSES satellite (CSES-02) consists of several detectors. The launch of CSES-02 is foreseen in 2024. The present work is focused on the second generation High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-02), developed by Limadou Italian collaboration, and in particular on its tracking system (Direction Detector — DD) to reconstruct the incident particle angle. The DD is made of five standalone tracking modules, consisting, as first and unique case, of monolithic silicon pixel sensors (MAPS), namely ALTAI. This chip was developed in the framework of the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) ITS sensor studies. The results on the DD performance are discussed based on the demanding requirements of space applications.

Novel Synthesis of radioluminescent CsI:Tl microcrystals under ambient conditions by antisolvent recrystallization method

Thallium doped Cesium Iodide (CsI:Tl) radioluminescent microcrystals are promising candidate for scintillation applications that include medical imaging, nuclear safety and high energy particle detection applications. This paper introduces, for the very first time, an antisolvent recrystallization method to synthesize microcrystals of CsI:Tl. The antisolvent recrystallization method is useful for synthesizing microcrystals at room temperature under atmospheric pressure and humidity conditions with high product yield approaching ∼90 %. The polycrystalline nature of the CsI:Tl microcrystals is confirmed from the X-ray diffraction analysis, wherein the crystallite size is found to be in the range of 20–25 nm. The scanning electron microscopy revealed the size of microcrystals in the range of 1–13 μm. The doping concentration of thallium (with 0.06, 0.10, 0.20, 0.50 and 1.00 mol%) strongly affects the luminescence yield. At higher concentration of doping, a shift towards long wavelength is observed. The strongest luminescence yield is observed in the sample of 0.2 mol% Thallium doping, which is around 76 % of luminescence compared to single crystal of CsI:Tl. This work provides a low-cost alternative to the growth of radioluminescent microcrystals in comparison with the existing single crystal growth approaches.

Gamma-Ray Burst Observations by the High-Energy Particle Detector on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite between 2019 and 2021

In this paper we report the detection of five strong gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) by the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) mounted on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite, operational since 2018 on a Sun-synchronous polar orbit at a ∼507 km altitude and 97° inclination. HEPD-01 was designed to detect high-energy electrons in the energy range 3–100 MeV, protons in the range 30–300 MeV, and light nuclei in the range 30–300 MeV n−1. Nonetheless, Monte Carlo simulations have shown HEPD-01 is sensitive to gamma-ray photons in the energy range 300 keV–50 MeV, even if with a moderate effective area above ∼5 MeV. A dedicated time correlation analysis between GRBs reported in literature and signals from a set of HEPD-01 trigger configuration masks has confirmed the anticipated detector sensitivity to high-energy photons. A comparison between the simultaneous time profiles of HEPD-01 electron fluxes and photons from GRB190114C, GRB190305A, GRB190928A, GRB200826B, and GRB211211A has shown a remarkable similarity, in spite of the different energy ranges. The high-energy response, with peak sensitivity at about 2 MeV, and moderate effective area of the detector in the actual flight configuration explain why these five GRBs, characterized by a fluence above ∼3 × 10−5 erg cm−2 in the energy interval 300 keV–50 MeV, have been detected.

The PMT Acquisition and Trigger Generation System of the HEPD-02 Calorimeter for the CSES-02 Satellite

This contribution describes the acquisition and trigger system for the HEPD-02 calorimeter that will be used onboard the CSES-02 satellite for the CSES/Limadou mission. This mission arises from the collaboration between the Chinese Space Agency (CNSA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and plans the realization of a constellation of satellites which will monitor ionospheric parameters supposed to be related to earthquakes. It will also monitor the solar activity and the interaction with the magnetosphere and will study the cosmic rays in low energy ranges, extending data from PAMELA and AMS. The CSES-02 satellite will be equipped with various instruments, including the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-02), which was designed to measure the energy of particles coming from Van Allen belts. Signals from the HEPD-02 are acquired and digitized by an electronic board that also produces the trigger for the experiment. A new generation ASIC (CITIROC) for the amplification, shaping and memorization of signals from PMTs will be used on this board. The new ASIC allows the use of the peak detector feature, optimizing the acquisition of signals with different temporal characteristics. Along with this, new algorithms for trigger generation have been developed, providing trigger pre-scaling, concurrent trigger masks and Gamma Ray Burst detection. Using pre-scaled concurrent triggers will allow the study of very sensitive regions of a satellite’s orbit such as the South Atlantic Anomaly and polar regions and to detect rare events such as GRBs while still monitoring particle bursts. In this contribution, the progress status of this work will be presented along with the measurements and tests made to finalize the flight model of the board.

Effects of High-Energy Electron Beam Irradiation on The Structure, Composition and Morphological Properties of Graphene Nanoplatelet Films

This work demonstrated the effects of 1.2 GeV high-energy electron beam irradiation on a few-layers of graphene (FLG) and multi-layer graphene (MLG) films grown via an in-house hot wire chemical vapour deposition (HWCVD) system. The FLG and MLG films were grown on highly doped n-type c-Si (100) substrates which were pre-treated using argon plasma (50 W) for 1 min and 10 min, respectively. The as-prepared samples were then irradiated using a 1.2 GeV high-energy electron beam with a dosage of 1.2 × 109 e-/cm2 at atmospheric and room temperature ambient conditions. The effects of the irradiation-mediated defects on the carbon lattice structure of both graphene samples were validated from the decreased sp2 C=C carbon content, and the increase in the adventitious carbon contamination C-O-C content. Raman results showed an elevation of the ID/IG ratio and blue-shift of the 2D and G band peaks for both the irradiated samples, which validated the mediated defects due to the dislocation of carbon atoms in the graphene sheets. The blue-shifted of 2D and G peaks were much more significant in the MLG than FLG which may indicate a better self-reconstructing property for the MLG atomic network, compared to the FLG. The stability of the films against high-energy electron beam irradiation was validated by their conductivity and surface topography. In conclusion, HWCVD grown graphene nanoplatelet films have high potential for graphene-based high-energy charged particle detectors.

Pion Detection Using Single Photon Avalanche Diodes.

We present the first reported use of a CMOS-compatible single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array for the detection of high-energy charged particles, specifically pions, using the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The results confirm the detection of incident high-energy pions at 120 GeV, minimally ionizing, which complements the variety of ionizing radiation that can be detected with CMOS SPADs.

Research progress of optoelectronic devices based on diamond materials

Diamond has a variety of unique characteristics, including integrates mechanics, electricity, heat, optics and other excellent properties, so that it is widely focus on the field of high and new technology, especially in the optoelectronic technology. Because diamond has the characteristics of high thermal conductivity, high breakdown field (10 mV/cm), high electron and hole mobility, it has a wide application prospect in high temperature, high power and high frequency photoelectric equipment. The wide bandgap (5.47 eV) makes diamond an ideal material in ultraviolet detectors (UV). Its high carrier mobility and breakdown field strength make it an ideal choice for field emission materials, which are expected to be used in high-power electronic devices in the next few years. At the same time, in addition to high hardness, it also has various of excellent physical properties, such as low coefficient of thermal expansion, low coefficient of friction, high acoustic propagation speed and high optical transmittance, so that it has broad application prospects in many fields such as machining, microelectronic devices, optical windows and surface coatings. In addition, diamond also has a high exciton binding energy (80 meV), which plays an important development in deep ultraviolet and high-energy particle detectors. In this article, the latest progress in the application of diamond-based optoelectronic devices is reviewed. A variety of advanced devices and physical phenomena are considered, for example, sensors, transistors, memory, Light-emitting diode (LEDs), ultraviolet detectors and field emission. This review will provide a new idea to promote the development of photoelectric applications based on diamond structure.

Bulk growth of unidirectional 1, 3, 5-Triphenylbenzene (TPB) single crystal for fast neutron detection by time of flight technique

The organic scintillator crystal 1,3,5-Triphenylbenzene (TPB) is a promising material for high-energy particle detection applications. The bulk size of unidirectional (<100> plane) TPB cylindrical crystal was grown by the unidirectional growth technique and their optical properties were analyzed to couple with a photomultiplier tube for detector device fabrications. The gamma retorts of the grown cylindrical crystal were tested with varying gamma energy sources ranging from 356 to 1275 keV. The Time of flight (TOF) experimental setup was constructed with a grown TPB crystal and Neutron-Gamma discrimination was demonstrated with a 252Cf fission source. The developed TPB crystal exhibits strong timing characteristics operates consistently and offers a great capability for discrimination over gamma radiations.

Calibration of the FY-3E particle sensors: High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD)

The FY-3 satellites are China's second generation polar-orbiting meteorological satellites. The high-energy particle detector (HEPD) suite of FY-3 satellites measures protons and electrons in different energy ranges. As the fifth satellite of the FY-3 series, FY-3E continues to observe polar-orbiting high-energy protons and electrons. Here, we use Monte Carlo simulations based on GEANT4 code to model the high-energy electron detector and calibrate the high-energy electron/proton detector campaigns at the Space Electron Facility, National Space Science Center (NSSC-SEF) and 100 MeV high intensity proton cyclotron at the China Institute of Atomic Energy (CYCIAE-100). Due to the energy limitation of the accelerator, the electronic calibration results are also provided. Overall, the findings of this study can serve as a useful reference for characterizing the performance of FY-3E HEPD and verifying the feasibility of on-orbit data.

Stochastic theory of charge dynamics and recombination in defect clusters in bulk silicon

Various types of defect clusters are generated in bulk Si-based high-energy particle detectors. They become either recombination centres or charge trapping centres. Populated trapping centres create internal fields which may affect the dynamics and recombination of remaining free charges. In the semiclassical regime, the charge dynamics can be described by the Boltzmann equation. In this paper, the stochastic description is presented as an alternative to a direct solution of the Boltzmann equation approach. It is demonstrated that the hole dynamics can be described in the overdamped regime in both light-hole and heavy-hole cases. Electrons have to be described by including ballistic components. The theory allows an efficient simulation of the electron and hole dynamics in the vicinity of a defect cluster and demonstrates that local trapping centres are the major components enabling fast charge recombinations. The dipolar type internal fields of permanently trapped charges only weakly influence the charge recombination kinetics.

Recent advances of transition radiation: Fundamentals and applications

Transition radiation is a fundamental process of light emission and occurs whenever a charged particle moves across an inhomogeneous region. One feature of transition radiation is that it can create light emission at arbitrary frequency under any particle velocity. Therefore, transition radiation is of significant importance to both fundamental science and practical applications. In this paper, we provide a brief historical review of transition radiation and its recent development. Moreover, we pay special attention to four typical applications of transition radiation, namely the detection of high-energy particles, coherent radiation sources, beam diagnosis, and excitation of surface waves. Finally, we give an outlook for the research tendency of transition radiation, especially its flexible manipulation by exploiting artificially-engineered materials and nanostructures, such as gain materials, metamaterials, spatial-temporal materials, meta-boundaries, and layered structures with a periodic or non-periodic stacking.

A Frequency-Tunable Fractional-N PLL for High-Energy Physics Experiments

A frequency tunable phase-locked loop (PLL) applied in high energy particle detector has been developed. In order to achieve high detection efficiency, high requirements are promoted for on-chip clock in CMOS pixel sensors, which requires high precision and low power consumption for the PLL. The proposed PLL employs a fractional-N frequency division structure. An LC voltage-controlled oscillator (LC-VCO) is used to generate the local clock. A third-order MASH sigma-delta (Σ - Δ) modulator is used to alleviate the quantization noise introduced by the fractional-N frequency divider. In order to further reduce the phase noise, pre-set and post-set binary frequency dividers are employed. In the prototype chip a low dropout regulator (LDO) is integrated to suppress the power supply noise. The PLL was designed and fabricated in a 180 nm CMOS process. It costs an area of 1.29 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and a power of 8.1 mW at a 1.8 V power supply. The measured output frequency range is 400 - 530 MHz with the reference frequency of 25 - 35 MHz. The RMS jitter, integrated from 100 kHz to 100 MHz, is 4.8 ps at 526 MHz. The in-band spur is less than -61 dBc, and the phase noise at 1 MHz frequency offset is less than -113 dBc/Hz.

Study of electrical properties and detection mechanism of a practical novel 3D-Spherical Electrode Detector

Among the 3D electrode Si detectors for high energy particle and X-ray detection, the traditional 3D-Trench electrode Si detector is a semiconductor detector that is widely used and discussed. Aiming at removing the shortcomings of the traditional 3D-Trench electrode Si detectors such as uneven electric field distribution, asymmetric electric potential, and the existence of some dead zone, we propose a new type 3D-Spherical Electrode Detectors and carry out extensive and systematic studies of their physical properties. We simulated detector electric field, electric potential, electron concentration distribution, full depletion voltage, leakage current, capacitance, the incident particle induced transient current and the weighting field. We systematically studied and analyzed detector’s electrical characteristics. By comparing with the traditional 3D-Trench electrode Si detectors, the new detector structure has more uniform electric field and potential, and less depletion voltage, leakage current and capacitance.

Time Dependence of 50–250 MeV Galactic Cosmic-Ray Protons between Solar Cycles 24 and 25, Measured by the High-energy Particle Detector on board the CSES-01 Satellite

Time-dependent energy spectra of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) carry crucial information regarding their origin and propagation throughout the interstellar environment. When observed at the Earth, after traversing the interplanetary medium, such spectra are heavily affected by the solar wind and the embedded solar magnetic field permeating the inner sectors of the heliosphere. The activity of the Sun changes significantly over an 11 yr solar cycle—and so does the effect on cosmic particles; this translates into a phenomenon called solar modulation. Moreover, GCR spectra during different epochs of solar activity provide invaluable information for a complete understanding of the plethora of mechanisms taking place in various layers of the Sun’s atmosphere and how they evolve over time. The High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) has been continuously collecting data since 2018 August, during the quiet phase between solar cycles 24 and 25; the activity of the Sun is slowly but steadily rising and is expected to peak around 2025/2026. In this paper, we present the first spectra for ∼50–250 MeV galactic protons measured by the HEPD-01 instrument—placed on board the CSES-01 satellite—from 2018 August to 2022 March over a one-Carrington-rotation time basis. Such data are compared to the ones from other spaceborne experiments, present (e.g., EPHIN, Parker Solar Probe) and past (PAMELA), and to a state-of-the-art three-dimensional model describing the GCRs propagation through the heliosphere.

The United States Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health Collaboration: Medical Care Advances via Discovery in Physical Sciences.

Over several months, representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science and National Institutes of Health (NIH) had a number of meetings that lead to the conclusion that innovations in the Nation's health care could be realized by more directed interactions between NIH and DOE. It became clear that the expertise amassed and instrumentation advances developed at the DOE physical science laboratories to enable cutting-edge research in particle physics could also feed innovation in medical healthcare. To meet their scientific mission, the DOE laboratories created advances in such technologies as particle beam generation, radioisotope production, high-energy particle detection and imaging, superconducting particle accelerators, superconducting magnets, cryogenics, high-speed electronics, artificial intelligence, and big data. To move forward, NIH and DOE initiated the process of convening a joint workshop which occurred on July 12th and 13th, 2021. This Special Report presents a summary of the findings of the collaborative workshop and introduces the goals of the next one.

Development and Calibration of a Three-Directional High-Energy Particle Detector for FY-3E Satellite

According to the characteristics of the LEO space particles radiation environment of China’s Fengyun No. 3 (FY-3) polar-orbiting meteorological satellites, in order to monitor the characteristics, and space–time distribution of charged particle radiation in the orbit space, it is proposed to install a three-directional high-energy particle detector (HEPD) in the three vertical orthogonal directions of FY-3E, so as to carry out the energy spectrum and flux observation of high-energy protons and electrons in the three directions of the satellite, namely, −X, +Y, and −Z. The on-orbit detection data acquired by these payloads can be used for space environment modeling and solar-terrestrial physics research, and provide data sources for operational space environment weather warning and forecasting. Through the ground accelerator calibration experiment and simulation analysis of the three-directional HEPDs developed in the flight model phase, the experimental results show that all the HEPDs’ measured values meet the requirements for technical indexes, such as the detection energy range (high-energy protons: 3–300 MeV; high-energy electrons: 0.15–5.7 MeV), energy span accuracy (&lt;15%), flux accuracy (&lt;15%), and sensitivity (&lt;5% (ΔN/N)).

Preliminary results for helium flux measured by the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) on board the CSES-01 satellite

The High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) is one of the payloads on board of CSES-01, the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite dedicated to monitoring perturbations of electromagnetic fields, plasma and charged particle fluxes induced by natural sources and artificial emitters in the near-Earth space. It is a light and compact payload suitable for measuring electrons (3-100 MeV), protons (30-300 MeV), and light nuclei (up to a few hundreds of MeV) with a high energy resolution and a wide angular acceptance. It has been launched in February 2018 on a Low-Earth Orbit and an altitude of about 507 km with a foreseen mission lifetime of over 5 years. It is providing crucial new insight in the physical dynamics of the radiation belts in the Earth’s magnetosphere. In this work, a preliminary analysis on helium spectra with energy >60 MeV is presented.

Results from the HEPD-01 detector on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES)

CSES (China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite) is a sophisticated multi-channel space observatory to study the Earth and its surrounding layers. It was launched on February 2nd, 2018, on a Sun-Synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 km. The High Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) is one of the main contributions of the CSES-Limadou collaboration to the mission with the goal of measuring 3-100 MeV electrons and 30-300 MeV protons, also extending to heavier nuclei. The instrument is quite compact (40.36 cm x 53.00 cm x 38.15 cm) and it is composed of a tracking system, a trigger made by a segmented layer of plastic scintillator, a calorimeter made by a tower of plastic scintillators and an array of LYSO cubes and a veto system. With its large field of view (±60°) it is capable to collect sufficient statistics to provide new and competitive measurements concerning a quite rich scientific program: the study of the radiation present in the ionospheric-magnetospheric environment, searching for transient phenomena correlated to seismic events, monitoring the solar activity, the flux of the low energy cosmic rays and studying the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). In this paper we provide a synthetic description of the detector and of the main scientific results obtained on the measurement of the properties of low energy charged particles.