The sPHENIX detector is being constructed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the USA. It will be commissioned for data taking in 2023. It will focus on measuring jets as well as open and hidden heavy flavor production in heavy ion collisions to study the properties of the Quark Gluon Plasma. The tracking of the sPHENIX apparatus is...
The high-luminosity upgrade of the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS12) will significantly enhance the physics reach of experiments in Hall B at JLab. However, at the current luminosity of L = 1 × 1035 cm-2 s-1, the reconstruction efficiency of charged particles in the forward region of the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS12) is at the level of 85% and limited in part by the...
In the central detector of the CLAS12 experiment at Jefferson Lab, the Barrel Micromegas Tracker (BMT) consists of six layers of low mass cylindrical resistive Micromegas tiles. The BMT surrounds three layers of silicon strip detectors to form the Central Vertex Tracker. The Micromegas tiles sit in a 5 T solenoid magnetic field, with the drift electric field orthogonal to the magnetic field,...
High pressure xenon time projection chamber (TPC) is an important detector technology to search neutrino-less double beta decays. The neutrino-less double beta decay search experiment of PandaX-III at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory uses a 10 bar 136Xe TPC with a readout plane consisting of 52 200×200 mm Micromegas detectors for high granularity, good energy resolution and a...
The two New Small Wheels (NSW) for the upgrade of the Atlas Muon Spectrometer are now installed in the experiment and ready to collect data in LHC Run III, started in July 2022. The NSW is the largest phase-1 upgrade project of ATLAS. Its challenging completion and readiness for data taking is a remarkable achievement of the Collaboration. The two wheels (10 meters in diameter) replace the...
In view of the LHC Phase-2, the CMS experiment is being upgraded with three stations of triple-GEM detectors (GE1/1, GE2/1 and ME0) to maintain the excellent trigger pT resolution of its muon spectrometer in the high-luminosity LHC environment and extending its coverage to the very-forward pseudorapidity region 2.4<|η|<2.8. The challenges faced for adapting the triple-GEM technology to a...
A large Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is the main tracking and particle identification device of the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. In order to cope with the foreseen Pb-Pb interaction rate of 50 kHz in the Run 3 of the LHC, the MWPC-based readout chambers of the ALICE TPC were replaced by a GEM-based amplification stage. Combined with the new front-end...
A recently approved ten-year extension of the BESIII experiment (IHEP, Beijing) motivated an upgrade program for both the accelerator and the detector. In particular, the current inner drift chamber is suffering from aging and the proposal is to replace it with a detector based on the cylindrical GEM technology. The CGEM inner tracker consists of three coaxial layers of triple GEM. The tracker...
Large-area coordinate detectors based on micro-resistive WELL (muRWELL) technology are under development for the CMD-3 detector at the VEPP-2000 collider at Budker INP. The CMD-3 is general purpose detector that is intended to measure parameters of light vector mesons and their excited states with accuracy better than 1% and study dynamics of multihadron production. In order to increase...
A GridPix detector is made of a highly pixelized readout ASIC combined with a Micromegas as a gas amplification stage. The later one is realized by photolithographic postprocessing, which allows for a high precision and good alignment of each Micromegas hole with a readout pixel. Because of this arrangement, the charge signal of a primary electron can be detected separately leading to an...
Micro-Pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGD) are the primary choice for the instrumentation of large area apparatus, with high detection efficiency in harsh environment, suitable for muon triggering and tracking at present and future accelerator facilities. They can indeed provide a precise standalone momentum measurement in combination with an inner tracking system. With the addition of a precise...
Many novel structures of the micro-pattern gaseous detector (MPGD) have been developed to adapt to different application needs since the advent of the MPGD technology. In this report we present a new MPGD structure and its preliminary test results. The new structure consists of an array of grooves, with an anode micro-strip placed at the bottom of each groove, and metal plated on the...
Rare isotope (RI) beam facilities are now important tools for nuclear physics. The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), located on the campus of the Michigan State University, is a new world-leading user facility for the study of RIs using the in-flight fragmentation method. The unprecedented potential discovery of a modern rare isotope beam facility, such as FRIB, can only be realized by...
Gas photomultiplier tubes (gas-PMT) for visible light detection using micro-pattern gas detectors have been widely studied owing to their potential advantages, such as large detection area with low cost, high spatial and time resolutions, and resistance to magnetic field. But photocathodes sensitive to visible light exhibit a significant aging effect when subjected to excessive ions...
The PICOSEC Micromegas precise timing detector is based on a Cherenkov radiator coupled to a semi-transparent photocathode and a Micromegas amplification structure. The first proof of concept single-channel small area prototype was able to achieve time resolution below 25 ps. One of the crucial aspects in the development of the precise timing gaseous detectors applicable in high-energy physics...
The PICOSEC Micromegas detector is a precise timing gaseous detector based on a Cherenkov radiator coupled to a semi-transparent photocathode and a Micromegas amplifying structure. First single-pad prototypes, equipped with a non-resistive Micromegas and a Cesium Iodide (CsI) photocathode, demonstrated a time resolution below 𝜎 = 25 ps. However, to make the concept appropriate to physics...
Some novel ideas of ionization-electron and scintillation-photon sensing concepts in single-phase noble-liquid detectors are presented. They rely on immersed micro-structured electrodes, including ones undercoated with VUV photocathodes. Both, radiation-induced electrons from the liquid and primary-scintillation photoelectrons emitted by the photocathode are collected on thin anode strips or...
We describe a novel concept for dual-phase noble liquid detectors, the Floating Hole Multiplier (FHM). It consists of a perforated electrode freely floating on the surface of the liquid. The concept has been validated with a Thick Gas Electron Multiplier (THGEM) on the surface of liquid xenon. First experimental results will be reported showing that the electrons, liberated in liquid xenon due...
The Bubble-free Liquid Hole-Multiplier (Bf-LHM) concept has been proposed for the simultaneous detection of scintillation-photons and ionization electrons, in dual-phase noble-liquid detectors. In a simpler version of the Bubble-assisted Liquid Hole-Multiplier (Ba-LHM), the gas bubble trapped under a perforated electrode is replaced by a liquid-to-vapor interface located between two...
The RPC with very thin material budget using MPGD technology has been developed for MEG- II experiment; muon to positron + gamma rare decay experiment. To improve the background rejection, low energy (< a few MeV) positrons coming from radiative decay should be detected under intense muon beam (around 4 x 106 muons per unit cm2) penetrating in the detector. Very small material budget (<0.001 x...
The Surface Resistive Plate Counter (sRPC) is a novel RPC based on surface resistivity electrodes, a completely different concept with respect to traditional RPCs that use electrodes characterized by volume resistivity. The electrodes of the sRPC exploit the well-established industrial Diamond-Like-Carbon (DLC) sputtering technology on thin (50μm) polyimide foils, already introduced in the...
The uninterrupted advancements of modelling and simulation tools, such as Garfield++, has guided the widespread development and understanding of particle detector technologies. Since novel detector structures are proposed regularly, with resistive detectors becoming an ever-increasing fraction of these, it is vital to reflect this progress in the capabilities of the modelling tools. This talk...
The long baseline neutrino experiment T2K will upgrade its near detector (ND280) next year to reduce the systematic uncertainty to less than 4% by adding an active highly segmented neutrino target (Super Fine Grained Detector) surrounded by two new gaseous Time Projection Chambers (High-Angle TPCs) and a 4p TOF veto. The required performances of these TPCs for momentum measurement and particle...
"Large volume Liquid Argon (LAr) Time Projection Chambers (TPC) are the technology of choice to study the elusive nature of neutrinos and to search for dark matter (DM) particles. Within the volume of noble liquid, neutrino or DM interactions produce prompt scintillation light and ionization electrons. The former is readout using UV light sensors while the latter are drifted under the...
To enhance the performance of micro-patterned gaseous detectors (MPGDs) to meet the challenging requirements of future HEP experiments, 2D materials are attractive candidates to address the backflow of positive ions (ion backflow, IBF), which affects detector performance by distorting electric field lines. A single or few layers of graphene are promising to...
Hydrogenated nonodiamond grains represent an alternative to CsI for detection of single VUV photons in gaseous detectors. A dedicated R&D study on of nanodiamond photocathodes coupled to THGEM-based photon detectors is ongoing. The first phase of these studies includes the comparison of QE in vacuum and in gaseous atmospheres and measurement of aging effects under irradiation and exposure to...
The study of 2D materials, and in particular their interaction with low-energy electrons, is of great interest in surface physics, as well as in several applications ranging from the development of electronic devices to novel detectors for particle physics. The concept of graphene as a pressure-tight membrane transparent to electrons can be employed for the upgrade of MPGD detectors, like...
Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) has become a widely employed technology in modern particle and nuclear physics experiments. Despite great advancements in their construction and performance, the formation of electrical discharges remains one of the major factors limiting the long-term stable operation of GEM detectors and it is crucial to develop methods to mitigate them. In this work GEM...
We are going to present for the first time Negative Ion Drift (NID) operation in He:CF4:SF6 at nearly atmospheric pressure within a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) with optical readout via PMTs and scientific CMOS camera (sCMOS). These results have been obtained in the context of the CYGNO/INITIUM project, for the development of high precision 3D TPC for directional direct Dark Matter searches....
NEWAGE is the experiment of direction-sensitive dark matter search using low pressure gaseous TPC with micro pattern strip readout (μ-PIC). It allows to measure the distribution of angles of WIMP-nuclear recoil by track reconstruction, and it leads a positive signature of dark matter. In recent years, large size (~1 m3) TPC filled with SF6 gas, which is so called “negative-ion gas”, is under...
IAXO is a large scale axion helioscope that will look for axions and axion-like particles produced in the Sun with unprecedented sensitivity. BabyIAXO is an in intermediate experimental stage that will be hosted at DESY (Germany) and that will test all IAXO subsytems serving as a prototype for IAXO but at same time as a fully-fledged helioscope with relevant physics at reach in itself and with...
Recent developments have shown that coupling a Micromegas gaseous detector on a glass substrate with a transparent anode and a CMOS camera enables the optical readout of Micromegas detectors. Efficient X-ray radiography has been demonstrated due to the integrated imaging approach inherent to optical readout. Spatial resolutions of better than σ = 200 μm have been demonstrated for low-energy...
We will demonstrate three-dimensional track reconstruction of electrons in a low pressure (50 Torr) optical TPC consisting of two glass GEMs with an ITO strip readout in CF4 and CF4/Ar mixtures. These reconstructed tracks show a variety of event topologies, including short tracks from photoelectrons induced by 55Fe 5.9 keV X-rays and long tracks from gamma ray interactions and beta decays....
We are going to discuss the R&D and the prospects for the CYGNO/INITIUM project, towards the development of an innovative, high precision 3D tracking Time Projection Chamber with optical readout using He:CF4 gas at 1 bar. CYGNO uses a stack of triple thin GEMs for charge multiplication, this induces scintillation in CF4 gas, which is readout by PMTs and sCMOS camera. High granularity and low...
We introduced in 2019 a new concept for electroluminescence in noble elements, based on very-thick acrylic-based perforated structures (Field-Assisted Transparent Gas Electroluminescence Multipliers, or FAT-GEMs in short). Although the structure had the potential for increased light collection thanks to its transparent substrate, such a possibility was not exploited and efforts were put on...
In recent years, an R&D project has been conducted to consolidate resistive Micromegas technology for operations well beyond the current ones in HEP experiments, with the aim of a stable, reliable, and high gain operation up to particle rates above 1 MHz/cm2, on large surfaces. To achieve this goal, while maintaining a low occupancy on the readout elements, a configuration with small pads...
The Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detectors built at the University of Virginia are used for both front and rear tracking systems in the Super Bigbite Spectrometer (SBS) experiments at Jefferson Lab (JLab). These GEM detectors include some of the largest area GEM detectors to be used in an experiment. Furthermore, with over 50 large area GEM modules, this is one of the largest ever sets of...
The RD51 collaboration organises up to three times per year joint test beam campaigns at the H4 beam line of the CERN SPS. Following the integration of the VMM3a front-end ASIC into the RD51 Scalable Readout System (SRS), the combination of VMM3a and SRS was adapted to read out a new beam telescope for the RD51 collaboration. Furthermore, the beam telescope was used as Beam Position Detector...
At LMU Munich a proton irradiation platform for preclinical research with tumor bearing mouse models has been developed and commissioned. It converts injected clinical proton beams to low energies of 20 to 50MeV and small diameters of O(1mm) to enable precise, image-guided irradiation of mice. The profile of the produced beam has been in depth characterized with an optically read out bulk...
In this study we investigate the intrinsic stability limits of GEM, Thick GEM and Micromegas detectors upon irradiation with alpha particles. The measurements are performed in Ar- and Ne- based mixtures with different CO2 content to study the influence of the gas on discharge probability and critical charge limits. The latter are evaluated by comparing the experimental data to results obtained...
From 2018 to the first months of 2022, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the experiments installed on the accelerator ring have performed the Long Shutdown 2 (LS2) upgrade campaign, to cope with the challenges offered by the High Luminosity LHC project. This phase will consist in an increase of the luminosity delivered to the experiments, aiming at enlarging the data statistics, for search...
Resistive anodes are employed in gaseous detectors to avoid or minimize the damaging effects of discharges and to protect the readout electronics. We have characterized discharges in Thick-GEM-based WELL configurations with and without resistive anodes, employing different charge evacuation mechanisms. We used a new method for the resistive detectors to identify gas breakdowns that occur when...
