The Electron–Ion Collider (EIC) will collide high-energy electron beams with high-energy ion beams over a very wide range of center-of-mass energies up to 140 GeV. The exciting science program imposes very demanding requirements for the detector. The electron-Proton/Ion Collider (ePIC) detector will be the most sophisticated particle detector designed and built to investigate collisions...
In recent years, there have been tremendous progress in novel theragnostic applications, in which one combines traditional diagnosis procedures and therapeutic/surgical interventions for treating cancer, cardiovascular diseases and brain disorders. These procedures would benefit from the next generation of clinical imaging techniques that would allow simultaneous multifaceted assessment of the...
The ALICE Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) underwent a major upgrade during the Long Shutdown 2. Several subsystems have been improved, including the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS), which has been entirely replaced. The new pixel-only tracker (ITS2) consists of 7 layers of monolithic active pixel sensors (MAPS) featuring a pixel size of 27×29 µm², with an intrinsic spatial...
Developed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and Cordin Scientific Imaging, presented in this paper will be the Time Pixel Multiplexing (TPM) sensor, a high-speed camera with variable frame depth. Based around the principle first published by Gil Bub [1], TPM is a 1024x1024 CMOS image sensor with the ability to image at speeds up to 10Mfps by changing which pixels are...
In recent years, development of pixel detectors has evolved from only improving the spatial resolution to also improving the temporal resolution. The ultimate goal is to develop a 4 Dimensional tracking (4D tracking) system capable of combining micrometer spatial resolution with a time resolution in the order of tens of picoseconds.
Low-Gain-Avalanche-Detectors (LGADs) provide a promising...
Calorimetry at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) faces two enormous challenges, particularly in the forward direction: radiation tolerance and unprecedented in-time event pileup. To meet these challenges, the CMS Collaboration is preparing to replace its current endcap calorimeters for the HL-LHC era with a high-granularity calorimeter (HGCAL), featuring a previously unrealized transverse and...
The ePIC experiment at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) includes a dual-radiator RICH (dRICH) detector for PID in the forward region. The dRICH will be equipped with 3x3 mm$^2$ silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) for Cherenkov light detection over a surface of $\sim$ 3 m$^2$ ($\sim$ 300k readout channels), representing the first HEP application of SiPMs for single-photon detection. SiPMs are chosen...
In current particle radiotherapy practice it is necessary to evaluate the radiation dosimetry and monitor the beam delivery procedures ideally using a simplified compact instrument with detailed time, spatial and directional response. For this purpose, we developed a non-invasive technique for wide field-of-view tracking and high-resolution dose monitoring of delivered particle accelerator...
Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), often referred to as dark-field signal, provides information about the microstructure of non-crystalline samples at sub-μm scales, unresolvable by conventional methods like micro-CT [1]. The directionality of the dark field can be exploited to extract the main orientations of microstructural features within the sample. Dark-field imaging enables the...
Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is an innovative and highly selective treatment against cancer. Nowadays in-vivo dose measurements and monitoring are important issues to carry out such therapy in clinical environments. In this work, different imaging methods were tested for dosimetry and tumor monitoring in BNCT based on a Compton camera detector. A dedicated data-set was generated...
Hadron therapy (HT) ensures extremely accurate dose conformity around tumor targets, reducing doses in adjacent healthy tissues and thereby providing enhanced safeguarding for at-risk organs. Heavier ions such as $^{4}\text{He}$, $^{12}\text{C}$, or $^{16}\text{O}$ could be more effective than protons due to their higher energy deposited per unit of track length (Linear Energy Transfer, LET)...
The MONOLITH H2020 ERC Advanced project aims at producing a high-granularity monolithic silicon pixel detector with picosecond-level time stamping. To obtain such extreme timing the project exploits: i) a fast and low-noise SiGe BiCMOS electronics; ii) a novel sensor concept, the Picosecond Avalanche Detector (PicoAD), that uses a patented multi-PN junction to engineer the electric field and...
The STAR (Southern Europe Thomson back-scattering source for Applied Research) facility is situated at the University of Calabria in Rende (CS), Italy. The construction phase concluded in 2023, and it is currently in the commissioning phase. It will serve as a user facility catering to the R&D community for comprehensive studies of various forms of matter, encompassing biological, organic, and...
A significant advantage of single-photon counting (SPC) systems, in comparison to integrating ones, is their ability to discriminate photons by their energy. This enables, among others, so called 'color imaging', i.e. radiography with photon energy differentiation. It can provide a notable enhancement in medical diagnostics, facilitating the differentiation of the x-rayed structures. This,...
Matterhorn is a new single photon counting hybrid pixel detector from the PSD Detector Group at the Paul Scherrer Institute. Its design goals are ambitious, aiming to achieve 90% counting efficiency at 20Mcounts/pixel/second while covering a 250 eV – 80 keV energy range and providing a 20 kHz continuous frame rate in 8 bit mode.
In this paper we present rate characterization done with...
The development of 4th generation synchrotrons, including Diamond-II in the UK, promises to yield exciting new science, as 10-100x flux increases (up to 10$^{12}$ ph/s/mm$^{2}$), over a wide range of energies up to 150 keV, become available to users in the next decade. However, these fluxes and energies overwhelm the capabilities of existing silicon-based detectors, which become transparent at...
The High Energy Cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility is a space astronomy payload under construction scheduled to be launched in 2027. It will be mounted on the cosmic lighthouse program onboard China's Space Station. The Transition Radiation Detector (TRD), one of the HERD subsystems, is mainly used to calibrate the Calorimeter (CALO) of the TeV energy spectrum and X-ray survey...
Being among the world’s leading heavy-ion scientific facilities, the heavy ion research facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL) and the high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility (HIAF) are constructed to study nuclear physics, atomic physics, nuclide chart, and heavy-ion-related applications. Some experiments under construction or planned at HIRFL and HIAF are the CSR external-target experiment (CEE),...
Abstract: Pixel detector is one of the most advanced radiation detectors. Due to its advantages, pixel detectors have been applied in multiple international physics experiment equipment and have shown excellent performance. This paper presents the Common Pixel Readout electronics (CPR) for pixel detectors. CPR is based on Xilinx Kintex 7 series FPGA. It has four optical fiber interfaces with a...
Most of the tracking detectors for high energy particle experiments are covered by silicon detectors since they are radiation hard, they can give very small spatial resolution and they can take advantage of the silicon electronics foundries’ developments and production lines.
Big area strip detectors are very useful to cover large areas for tracking purposes. The majority of particle...
The HYLITE (High dYnamic range free electron Laser Imaging deTEctor) is a charge-integration pixel detector readout chip specifically designed for SHINE (Shanghai HIgh repetition rate XFEL aNd Extreme light facility). To meet the dynamic range requirement of 1~10000 photons/pixel/pulse at 12 keV, each pixel incorporates a Charge Sensitive Amplifier (CSA) with an automatic gain-switching...
With the completion and operation of a series of high-performance neutron sources, such as the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS), various neutron scattering spectrometers have continuously increased their performance requirements. One important aspect is to reduce collisions between scattered neutrons and air molecules during neutron scattering experiments, thereby reducing background...
The radiation environment in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) differs significantly from conditions on Earth. While direct measurements of radiation are already being conducted, new methods are emerging. One such method involves utilizing Timepix-based radiation monitors, developed by Advacam s.r.o. These advanced devices provide insights not only into radiation dose and flux but also particle...
Airborne radiation monitoring (ARM) holds significant worth for the monitoring of radiation levels in the environment and the prompt management of radiation incidents and emergencies. Its efficacy extends to emergencies, enabling rapid analysis of extensively contaminated regions with minimal human involvement. Radiation distribution maps created from aerial survey data also effectively...
Wafer to wafer bonding offers an economic approach to interconnect all readout electronic chips with the solid-state sensor chips on the wafer by only one bonding step. This is a promising technology for the fabrication of 3D integrated hybrid modules for particle detection and timing layers in future particle detectors. The technology described in this paper combines the metal-metal...
Radioisotope detection and gamma spectroscopy such as identification and quantification play crucial roles in various fields, including nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear decommissioning, and nuclear security. To date, three main types of detectors have been utilized for the position detection and gamma spectroscopy analysis of radioisotopes: (1) collimator-based gamma cameras, (2)...
Dental cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is becoming a standard examination protocol in clinical practice for anatomic imaging of jaws prior to dental implant placement. In addition, CBCT of a small field of view (FOV) employing a small-area flat panel detector is important for low-dose endodontic treatment [1]. However, in dental CBCT of a small FOV, the discrepancy of grayscale values...
Fast neutrons preserve the initial source information (e.g., position, energy, and time) due to their relatively low interaction probability with surrounding materials and their straight track. When measuring fast neutrons using scattering reactions, there is no need to be slowed down to thermal neutrons. This allows for more accurate information to be obtained. A neutron scattering imager...
NaI(Tl) Scintillation detectors are widely used to measure the ambient dose equivalent rate for monitoring environmental gamma radiation. However, NaI(Tl) is limited to identify some gamma-rays from 131I, 134Cs, and 137Cs which are released from the nuclear facilities due to its low energy resolution. Three halide scintillation detectors – LaBr3(Ce), CeBr3, and SrI2(Eu) – were used to measure...
We have developed a new method for the inverse estimation of incident position of radiation on an optical fiber by utilizing the wavelength dependence of light attenuation within the fiber. Our sensor captures the emission wavelength spectrum of the scintillation light by connecting a spectrometer to the fiber's end. The shape of the wavelength spectrum changes with the light's transmission...
The use of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) as light sensors for Ring-Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors operating in high magnetic fields is a promising option. Recent advances in SiPM technology in terms of near ultraviolet photon detection efficiency, time resolution and radiation hardness suggest the possibility of designing an innovative and challenging compact and fast RICH system for...
Thanks to the reduced production expenses and the undemanding manufacturing process, Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) represent appealing candidates for radiation imaging applications and for the design of high-performance silicon vertex and tracking detectors of high-energy physics experiments.
In the context of future detector upgrades for the HL-LHC at CERN, the R$\&$D initiative on...
The ATLAS collaboration will replace its inner detector by an all-silicon tracker (ITk) for the HL-LHC.
The new pixel detector will cover a sensitive area of 13m2 with about 9000 modules, made of planar and 3D silicon sensors bump bonded to readout with new Front-End ASIC.
The pixel modules are loaded on light-weight carbon structures in the form of (half)rings and staves.
A serial...
Semiconductor hybrid pixel detectors with Timepix3 chips developed by Medipix collaboration at CERN can simultaneously measure deposited energy and time of arrival of individual particle hits in all 256 x 256 pixels with 55 µm pitch size. Leveraging the single-particle detection sensitivity of Timepix3 chips, there is a potential to develop algorithms for classifying detected single particles...
In the high-luminosity era of the Large Hadron Collider, the instantaneous luminosity is expected to reach unprecedented values, resulting in up to 200 proton-proton interactions in a typical bunch crossing. To cope with the resulting increase in occupancy, bandwidth and radiation damage, the ATLAS Inner Detector will be replaced by an all-silicon system, the Inner Tracker (ITk). The innermost...
Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) combine the sensing node and readout circuitry into the same substrate, thus offering several advantages with respect to their hybrid counterparts, including reduced material budget, spatial resolution, and decreased power consumption. Nevertheless, MAPS face challenges in high radiation environments due to their relatively lower radiation tolerance and...
In recent semiconductor scaling, encountering physical limits, 2D materials are gaining significant attention. Among them, TMDs and MXenes are actively researched as 2D materials due to their superior electrical conductivity and physical stability compared to graphene. Among TMDs, MoS2 is bound by Van der Waals forces, allowing easy separation into individual sheets using sonification, and it...
Low-dose computed tomography (CT) imaging is a crucial diagnostic tool that reduces radiation exposure for patients but often suffers from increased noise and reduced image quality. To address these challenges, we developed a hybrid network that combines the strengths of stochastic block (StoBlock) and residual dense networks (RDN) to enhance the denoising of low-dose CT images. The hybrid...
The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is the central hadronic calorimeter of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It plays an important role in the reconstruction of jets, hadronically decaying tau leptons and missing transverse energy, and also provides information to the dedicated calorimeter trigger. This sampling calorimeter is composed by the plastic scintillating tiles...
In 2021, the ATLAS collaboration started the production phase of the new Inner-Tracker (ITk) strip sensors, so-called ATLAS18, that should be able to withstand the extreme radiation conditions expected for the forthcoming High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) upgrade. The new all-silicon ITk detector will reach unprecedented accumulated fluences and ionizing doses, caused by the...
In the framework of an Italian PRIN 2022 PNRR project, we proposed to develop advanced modules for SPECT prototypes, in terms of sensitivity, spatial and energy resolution, for quantitative imaging in nuclear medicine. In this context, we developed new high-resolution cadmium–zinc–telluride (CZT) drift strip detectors for room temperature gamma-ray spectroscopic imaging. As widely...
With an increasing number of applications, the Timepix [1] technology is also currently studied as a possible radiation monitor [2] within the scope of Radiation to Electronics activities at CERN. During a calibration campaign at CNA 3 MV tandem facility [3], its capabilities as a beam monitor for ion beams emerged. The investigated proton and hadron beams leave multi-pixel tracks in the...
The High Luminosity upgrade of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) requires new high-radiation tolerant silicon pixel sensors for the innermost part of the tracking detector in the CMS experiment. The innermost layer of the tracker, which is as close as 3 cm from the interaction point, will be exposed to a fluence of 2.6E16 neq/cm2 during the high-luminosity operation period. The 3D pixel...
Background and Aims: Accurate energy measurements imparted by single particles under high-flux conditions are essential for various applications including radiotherapy, space applications, and accelerator physics. Challenges emerge when: i) particle count rate on the detector exceeds 10^5 particles/s and particle overlapping occurs, ii) short-pulsed beams necessitate high temporal...
SPHIRD ASIC is dedicated to high count rate single photon counting operation at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility with Extremely Brilliant Source. The prototype IC has a matrix of 64×32 pixels with 50μm pitch. Pixel front-end electronics employs novel pile-up compensation techniques [1], while pixel logic uses relocation algorithms to increase spatial resolution [2]. This paper...
PERCIVAL (Pixelated Energy Resolved CMOS Imager, Versatile And Large) [1] is a new soft-X-ray detector system also designed for modern computational synchrotron radiation microscopy. Developed collaboratively by seven research institutes (DESY, RAL/STFC, Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, PAL, SOLEIL and Pohang Light Source), this detector is now at an advanced stage, featuring a...
Detection and spectrometry measurements of mixed-radiation fields of high fluence and harsh radiation environments present challenges of detection selectivity and radiation damage. Silicon Carbide (SiC) as semiconductor sensor material exhibits particular advantages [1-2] of high radiation hardness, stable and high temperature operation. Available first as single pad devices, SiC pixel sensor...
Digital flat-panel detectors with indirect method typically uses amorphous silicon thin film transistor (TFT) or silicon CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) matrix arrays integrated with various scintillators for many X-ray imaging tasks. Conversion of X-ray energy into electric signals in flat-panel detector is implemented through a scintillating converter that emits visible lights...
The organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite have various advantages, such as outstanding electronic properties, tunable bandgap, wide-range optical absorption, high ambipolar carrier transport properties, long carrier diffusion length, trivial exciton binding energy, and low-temperature processability and flexibility. However, a major challenge associated with organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite...
In the realm of low-energy nuclear physics experiments, Active Target Time Projection Chambers (AT-TPC) proves advantageous for studying nuclear reaction kinematics. Specifically, it allows investigation into phenomena like the alpha cluster decay of $^{12}C$ by precisely tracking the reaction products produced within the active gas medium of the TPC. The tracking capability of the TPC...
Monte Carlo particle transport codes are usually used to simulate the processes energies beyond the SEM range of few tens of KeV. The functionality of some of these codes is however broader and they can be successfully used to simulate the physics in the range corresponding to SEM. This contribution demonstrates the usage of two closely related codes for the simulation of the SEM detector...
We focus on particle detectors for electron microscopy and especially on the image quality improvement with very high sensitivity and low-noise electron imaging. Solid-state detectors offer the advantages of direct detection, response linearity, thin and customizable geometry including arbitrary segmentation. This, in combination with signal electron filtering in the SEM objective, promises...
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will soon be upgraded to prepare for the high-luminosity phase. To cope with the increase in background rates and trigger requirements, the CMS muon system is being upgraded by installing additional sets of muon detectors based on Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) technology. The GE2/1 station will consist of 72 GEM chambers, comprising 288 modules, covering the...
The inner detector of the present ATLAS experiment has been designed and developed to function in the environment of the present Large Hadron Collider (LHC). At the ATLAS Phase-II Upgrade, the particle densities and radiation levels will exceed current levels by a factor of ten. The instantaneous luminosity is expected to reach unprecedented values, resulting in up to 200 proton-proton...
The X-ray imaging systems dedicated for X-ray spectroscopy, based on a semiconductor strip sensors have been recently an important research topic. The most important research objective is working towards improvement of the spectroscopic and position resolution features [1-3]. In spectroscopic applications the short strip silicon detectors are widely used due to their relatively small...
Organic scintillators play a significant role in detecting ionizing radiation and have been widely utilized in Particle and Nuclear Physics research, as well as in their related applications, due to their cost-effectiveness. This study addresses the fundamental research and development aimed at meeting the demands of next-generation experiments in High Energy Physics, which necessitate...
Coded Aperture γ-cameras, which have been utilized for over three decades in diverse fields such as astrophysics, nuclear facility decommissioning, and nuclear medicine, play a crucial role in imaging radioactive source distributions. These devices capture the spatial coordinates of γ-emitters within their field of view by leveraging the pattern of a coded-aperture mask. This mask projects a...
Compton imaging is a promising gamma-ray imaging method that can visualize a radioactive source without any mechanical collimators based on the Compton scattering kinematics. Challenges of the conventional Compton imaging method are an artifact in a reconstructed image and the low signal-to-background ratio, which are caused by drawing multiple Compton cones with a calculated scattered angle....
During the ATLAS High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) upgrade, the current inner detector is going to be replaced by an all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). The pixel detector, located in the innermost part of the ITk, comprises of 9716 modules arranged in 5 layers around the beam line. The ITk-Pixel DAQ system basic read-out chain includes the YARR software, communicating with the FELIX...
X-ray imaging is an invaluable tool for noninvasive analysis in many fields ranging from basic science to medicine and security. The development of low-dose large area imaging solutions still represents an important challenge for various applications.
One solution to the imaging of large areas lies in the development of novel computational imaging systems that can overcome the limitations...
We are evaluating the performance of a Passive Gamma Emission Tomography (PGET) device [1] equipped with 3D position-sensitive cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) gamma-ray detectors when used for inspecting spent nuclear fuel assemblies (SFAs). Before their disposal in a geological repository, SFAs undergo verification using the PGET device, developed under the guidance of the IAEA and approved by...
In recent years we have witnessed several new generations of hybrid detectors getting slow adoption in electron microscopy, mostly used as a radiation hard direct-electron camera for diffraction on TEM. We have shown previously the advantages of the use of Timepix sensor for electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and for the reflected Kikuchi diffraction (RKD). In combination with the...
Most of the commercially available MCAs for SiPM detectors provide precision spectral measurements with costly high-end components. These devices are ideal for accurate instrumentation, however the high complexity makes these devices costly and thus unavailable to wider public.
The main idea of the presented device is to develop a low-cost MCA which uses widely available of-the-shelf...
Spatially resolved XRD using polychromatic fan beam and a hybrid pixel detectors Timepix3
The utilization of hybrid pixelated detectors such as Timepix3 for imaging has already been proven to have many benefits compared to conventional detectors, e.g. CCDs. The proposed work exploits these benefits for material structure analysis using x-ray diffraction (XRD) with a polychromatic fan beam....
Photon-counting detectors (PCDs) are an emerging technology that provides energy-selective images for a single x-ray exposure. At this time when studies have begun to consider PCDs for industrial nondestructive inspection, it is significant to present a metric describing the imaging efficiency or performance of PCDs. In this study, we describe the imaging performance in terms of detective...
The Timepix3 (TPX3) detector is a hybrid semiconductor pixelated detector [1] with a radiation sensitive sensor made of semiconductor materials such as Si, SiC, CdTe or GaAs of varying thickness. The detector is being used in a wide range of applications, including medicine, high-energy physics, neutron detection and outer space. Space applications are currently expanding and, in addition to...
We built a lightweight gamma-ray measurement setup that can be placed in standard weather balloons and can be retrieved after the flight. This allows multiple flights with a relatively small cost. The aim is to get spectral information on radiation at high altitudes. To obtain good spectral resolution with relatively small weight we use a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector which has crystal...
Photon-counting detectors with CdTe sensors and a small pixel size suffer from a charge sharing effect which can induce multiple counts from a single interacting photon. In addition, fluorescence photons contribute to the detected signal if the energy of the incident radiation is higher than the Cd K-edge (26.7 keV). Both effects not only degrade the energy resolution, but also the spatial...
The Compact Pulsed Hadron Source (CPHS) at Tsinghua University is a 13 MeV/16 kW high-current proton linac-driven neutron source, serving as a platform for education and research. To leverage the facility’s capabilities, a Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) instrument was among the first to be built. The primary detector of the CPHS-SANS consists of a two-dimensional array of 96 3He linear...
The DSSC camera was developed for photon science applications in the 0.25-6 keV energy range at the European XFEL in Germany. The first 1-Megapixel DSSC camera, equipped with Miniaturized Silicon Drift Detector (MiniSDD), is available and is successfully used for scientific experiments at the “Spectroscopy and Coherent Scattering” (SCS) and the “Small Quantum System” instruments of the...
Hybrid-pixel detectors bump-bonded to silicon sensors are widely adopted for X-ray detection. However, their performance deteriorates in the soft X-ray regime due to reduced quantum efficiency and signal-to-noise ratio degradation. Recent advancements in X-ray detectors for photon science applications involve hybrid detector assemblies equipped with Inverted Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (iLGADs),...
The detection of ionizing radiation is of eminent importance in various branches of science like in medicine, environmental monitoring, high energy physics and border security technologies, among others. The development of alternative systems for radiation detection that present versatility of applications, of easy production and manipulation with viable costs has been the focus of many recent...
Gaseous argon detectors have been widely used in dark matter searches and neutrino experiments over the last decade, due to their distinctive ionization and scintillation characteristics. The primary and secondary scintillation in argon mainly result from the radiative de-excitation of singlet and triplet excimer states produced at gas pressures above 100 mbar. This prevalent light production...
Position sensitive detectors for radiation imaging have shown as very valuable technologies to further reduce the radioactive background in the very large, current and future, detectors designed to discover the signals of dark matter interaction or neutrinoless double beta decay. I will overview the activities at the Canfranc Underground Lab, with focus on recent developments in low background...
(Single-layer) particle tracking with Timepix3 for radiation field characterization and interaction point reconstruction within MoEDAL during PbPb collisions in 2018
The MoEDAL collaboration
MoEDAL-MAPP [1,2] is an LHC experiment dedicated to search for physics beyond the standard model through detection of exotic particles, amongst others magnetic monopoles (MM) or highly...
Abstract
X-ray Virtual Histology (XVH) has been proposed as a tool for improving the workflow of histopathological evaluation. Compared to conventional histology, which is inherently a bi-dimensional technique, XVH is based on micro-computed tomography (µCT), thus providing a 3D depiction of the imaged sample. This feature proved to be beneficial in the identification of...
In this work, a method for enhanced detection and imaging of the radiation field generated in pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy delivered at conventional and ultra-high-dose rates (UHDR) is presented. This work specifically aims to quantify the dose, flux and linear energy-transfer spectra (LET) of the stray radiation measured outside the target volume including contribution from...
Soft X-rays are crucial to study the electronic structure and order of matter. Techniques such as ptychography, and resonant elastic and inelastic scattering in the soft X-ray domain benefit from the large area and the fast frame rate of hybrid pixel detectors (HPDs). State-of-the-art HPDs have become indispensable for scattering techniques with hard X-rays thanks to the large area, fast frame...
4D Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (4D STEM) is a cutting-edge technique that involves scanning an electron beam across a 2D array on a sample. Simultaneously, a detector positioned below the sample records a 2D pattern for each point visited by the electron beam, resulting in a 4D dataset. This method is commonly used in Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) for various...
CdTe and CZT detectors are used in various environments in high-energy, nuclear, medical and astrophysics. The material itself is high-Z material and has high interaction probability with high energy X-rays and gamma rays. However, the crystal properties, especially various defects have an impact on the charge collection efficiency. We have seen that for shallow energy deposition, such as for...
Deep learning can significantly enhance spatial resolution beyond the pixel pitch of hybrid detectors. We have successfully demonstrated it for electron microscopy with 200 keV electrons using the MÖNCH 25 um pitch charge integration pixel detector. The deep learning models have been trained using simulation data, which are easier to produce with varied parameters, and measurement data, which...
The integration of negative capacitance (NC) into field-effect transistor (FET) devices, offers a promising solution to overcome the fundamental limitations in power dissipation, commonly referred to as Boltzmann tyranny. NC, characterized by a voltage increase with decreasing charge, has long been a theoretical concept but presents practical challenges in electronic device implementation....
Gallium arsenide is extensively studied for about seven decades as an excellent material for semiconductor lasers, LEDs, and microwave electronics. GaAs has noticeable advantages over silicon and Cd(Zn)Te for radiation detectors. Particularly GaAs has higher electron mobility compared to Si and Cd(Zn)Te; higher average atomic number compared to Si; and lower probability and energy of the...
4$^{\mathrm{th}}$ generation light sources will see many facilities upgrade to Diffraction Limited Storage Rings, providing brighter photon beams with greater coherence over a larger energy range. For example, Diamond-II will result in a 10-100× decrease in the electron horizontal emittance alongside an increase in the electron-beam energy from 3 to 3.5 GeV. One driver highlighted within the...
GaAs:Cr is of great interest for use as the sensor material of hybrid pixels detectors (HPDs) at fourth-generation light sources, due to its increased stopping power at higher (> 20 keV) photon energies compared with standard Si sensors [1]. Many such facilities will offer increased photon flux at higher energies, opening up new experimental possibilities. This includes X-ray fluorescence...
Radiation and particle semiconductor detectors incorporating electron-hole multiplication layers have received a growing interest within the scientific community in the last decade [1-4]. In particular, devices operating in the proportional charge multiplication region with moderate gains (< 50), commonly called Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD), have been found very challenging for high...
This contribution reports on the results of large-area (2 cm$^2$) small pitch (55 μm) inverse Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors (iLGAD), bonded to Timepix3 readout chips. The ilGAD sensors were produced by Micron Semiconductor Ltd with the goal to obtain good gain uniformity and minimise the fill-factor issue present with traditional small-pitch LGAD designs. We have conducted detailed performance...
The Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGADs) are silicon detectors that use the impact ionization process to achieve gain values of about $\mathcal{O}$(10). One of the important factors to consider when using LGADs for experiments studying charged cosmic rays in space is their timing performance. While conventional silicon microstrip sensors only provide spatial information of the charged particles...
The latest R&D at DECTRIS on detectors for photon science addresses the demanding requirements of recent synchrotron upgrades. We focus on achieving high frame rates, maintaining outstanding performance well above 10Mcts/pixel/s, and ensuring broad energy coverage from 1.6 keV to 80 keV. Our innovations aim to set new standards in detector technology, enabling groundbreaking advancements in...
Timepix4 is an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) developed by the Medipix4 collaboration [1]. Timepix hybrid detection systems are realized by bump-bonding the ASIC to pixelated sensors (pixel pitch 55 $\mu m$) of various materials and thicknesses to adapt the detection performances to different applications.
Timepix4 Time of Arrival (ToT) - Time over Threshold (ToT) data-driven...
The enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission (eXTP website, https://www.isdc.unige.ch/extp/) is a scientific space program that will look at X-rays coming from targets such as neutron stars, magnetars and black holes [1, 2] to study the state of matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism. The eXTP satellite will be equipped with state-of-the-art instruments enabling...
The integration of AI algorithms directly into pixel detectors presents a transformative approach to managing the substantial data volumes generated by high-energy physics experiments, X-ray imaging and other applications. We have investigated two diverse applications and developed a design flow for Algorithm to Accelerator which spans from creating “use inspired” specification to generating...
With the evolution of synchrotron light sources to 4th generation (diffraction limited storage-rings), the brilliance is increased by up to two orders of magnitude compared to 3rd generation facilities. For instance, the Swiss Light Source (SLS) is presently undergoing an upgrade to SLS2.0, promising a performance enhancement by a factor of 40.
One of the main challenges arising from the...
We are excited to present the first results from our Trench Isolated Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (TI-LGAD), developed in collaboration with Micron Semiconductor Ltd and the Scottish Microelectronics Centre. The TI-LGAD represents an innovative approach to low gain avalanche diodes (LGAD), featuring fine segmentation and narrow trenches (1 μm) that effectively isolate adjacent pixels. This...
FASER, the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment, is an experiment at the LHC designed to search for light dark matter particles and study the interactions of high-energy neutrinos. A new high-granularity preshower detector will be installed in FASER with the purpose of measuring and discriminating electromagnetic showers generated by two photons with $\mathcal{O}$(TeV) energies. The new preshower will...
Radio Guided Surgery (RGS) is a nuclear medicine technique that directs surgeons towards tissue targets preoperatively defined on imaging-roadmaps such as PET/CT.
To this aim a radiopharmaceutical is injected into the patient before surgery, and the surgeon is given an intraoperative detector enabling the real-time identification of areas with accumulated radiotracer.
Typically utilizing...
Ion-beam radiotherapy uses steep dose gradients which makes it a highly effective cancer treatment but also susceptible to anatomical variations and patient setup shifts between treatment fractions. In-vivo monitoring with secondary radiation promises to reveal information about the daily treatment quality. The InViMo clinical trial at the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT) aims to...
Understanding the distribution, isotopic composition, and activity of a radiological threat object or contamination area is crucial for responding to both short- and long-term nuclear threats. To address these needs, radiological Scene Data Fusion (SDF) has been developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) over the past decade to...
The 100µPET project is developing a pre-clinical medical scanner for positron-emission tomography (PET) with ultra-high-resolution molecular imaging capabilities. The scanner is composed of multiple layers of monolithic active pixel sensors (MAPS) connected to flexible printed circuits (FPC). With pixels of 150 µm pitch and a thickness of 280 µm + 300 µm (MAPS + FPC), the scanner achieves...
Experimental Validation of Gamma Emission Tomography to Inspect Partial-Defects within the Pressurized Water Reactor-Type Spent Nuclear Fuel
Hyung-Joo Choi a, Yoon Soo Chung a, Hojik Kim b, Sung-Woo Kwak b, Hee-Kyun Baek c, Jung-ki Shin c, Yong Hyun Chung a, and Chul Hee Min a*
a Department of Radiation Convergence Engineering, Yonsei University, Republic of Korea
b Korea Institute of...
Muons are mainly produced by the decay of pions created by the interaction between high-energy protons in space and the Earth's atmosphere. Among cosmic ray-charged particles, muons are the largest number of particles reaching sea level. Muons have penetrating solid ability and can pass through materials hundreds of meters to several kilometers thick. In this paper, the Cosmic Ray Muon Imaging...
Continuing our research on X-ray research and development for industrial nondestructive testing, we established a prototype cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) with an offset-detector configuration that can increase scan field of view by a factor of two. In CBCT, image visibility is often limited owing to the artifacts caused by scattered X-rays and noise. Several methods, including...
Two-dimensional (2D) X-ray inspection systems are widely used in airports for aviation security. However, they have inherent limitations in recognizing the 3D shapes of the hidden threats. Therefore, there is a growing demand for the implementation of advanced 3D X-ray inspection systems at airports for more accurate detection of threats in luggage and personal belongings. In a previous study...
In recent years, digital flat-panel detectors with indirect X-ray imaging technology have been widely used in many medical imaging such as radiography, fluoroscopy and cone-beam CT as well as non-destructive testing (NDT) applications. These indirect X-ray imaging technology is based on the integration of a thin film transistor (TFT) array with large area scintillating screens such as typical...
Two-dimensional (2D) digital mammography (DM) has played a important role in clinic for breast cancer screening. However, it has drawn criticism for limited sensitivity and excessive false-positive screening owing to the superimposition of breast tissue [1]. Recently, with the development of full-field DM, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) which provides 3D image acquisition has been rapidly...
The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) will deliver proton-proton collisions at 5-7.5 times the nominal LHC luminosity, with an expected number of 140-200 pp-interactions per bunch crossing (Pile-up or PU). To maintain the performance of muon triggering and reconstruction under high background, the forward part of the Muon spectrometer of the CMS experiment will be upgraded with Gas Electron...
MIC series MAPS ASIC are being designed at CCNU for a few physics experiments. A flexible chip readout and DAQ system is under the development, to support the chip evaluation and the readout of telescope with multiple modules. The system includes a front-end kit CARO and a back-end PCIe based system PiDAQ. CARO is based on the AMD Kria K26 SOM, while PiDAQ is based on the AMD Versal Prime...
The upcoming High Luminosity upgrade of the CERN LHC (HL-LHC) will provide detectors with unparalleled instantaneous and integrated luminosities. This improvement will be accompanied by an increase of the average number of proton-proton collisions per bunch crossing to a value of 200. To cope with these challenges, the CMS detector is undergoing an extensive Phase-2 upgrade program, including...
Parallel CPU and GPU-based connected component algorithms for event building for hybrid pixel detectors
Tomáš Čelko, František Mráz, Benedikt Bergmann, Petr Mánek
Abstract:
Introducing the Timepix3 [6] hybrid pixel detector significantly improved particle tracking with its high spatial and temporal resolution. However, its high pixel-hit rate posed challenges for processing software...
The pFREYA16, prototype Fast Readout for ptYchography Applications with 16 channels, ASIC is a pixellated 8-by-2 readout matrix developed for ptychography experiments based on fourth generation storage ring light sources, also known as Diffraction-Limited Storage Rings (DLSR), pushing towards continuous wave operation. The target of the experiment is to obtain a 128-by-128 matrix of pixels,...
The ALICE Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will replace the three innermorst layers of the inner tracking system during the Long Shutdown 3 in 2026-2028. The new three-layer inner tracking and vertexing system (ITS3) will consist of truly-cylindrical silicon barrels to improve the pointing resolution by a factor of two over a large momentum range and the tracking efficiency at...
The Belle II experiment currently records data at the SuperKEKB e+e- collider, which holds the world luminosity record of 4.7x10^34 cm-2.s-1 and plans to reach 6x10^35 cm-2 s-1 at the end of the decade. In such luminosity range for e+e- collisions, the inner detection layers should both cope with a hit rate dominated by beam-induced parasitic particles and provide minute tracking precision. A...
The enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission (eXTP) is a scientific space mission aimed at studying the state of matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism. This objective will be achieved through searching for and observing some primary targets such as neutron stars, magnetars and black holes [1, 2, 3]. The eXTP satellite will be equipped with an unprecedented...
Thallium Bromide (TlBr) semiconductor, known for its high stopping power and wide energy band gap, holds promise as a room temperature gamma ray detector. In this study, we fabricated and characterized a TlBr detector, assessing its performance in energy resolution and timing capability through simultaneous analysis of electric charge and Cherenkov light. TlBr crystals (5 mm × 5 mm × 5 mm)...
The most important ATLAS upgrade for LHC run-3 has been in the Muon Spectrometer, where the replacement of the two forward inner stations with the New Small Wheels (NSW) introduced two novel detector technologies: the small strip Thin Gap Chambers (sTGC) and the resistive strips Micromegas (MM). The integration of the two NSW in the ATLAS endcaps marks the culmination of an extensive...
Hybrid pixel detectors have a well-established array of applications ranging from particle physics to life sciences. The small dimensions of Timepix3 [1] as well as its relatively low energetic expenses make it an intriguing option also for ion detection in nuclear physics experiments, as it reveals simultaneously precise temporal, spatial and energetic properties of recorded events from...
Inverse Low Gain Avalanche Diode (iLGAD) sensors featuring a thin entrance window exhibit promising characteristics, including a quantum efficiency exceeding 60% and single-photon detection capability for soft X-rays down to 390 eV, accompanied by a reasonable signal-to-noise ratio. First experiments employing hybrid pixel detectors in conjunction with the developed iLGADs have yielded...
Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs) have seen prominent usage and development over the last 10 years, particularly within High Energy Physics. These devices are planned to be utilised for track timing as part of the High-Luminosity upgrade proposed for the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). Within the Photon Science Community however, progress has been made in developing pixellated LGAD devices...
The new ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) will replace the current tracking system in ATLAS to cope with the challenging conditions during the high-luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider. ITk is an all-silicon detector consisting of a pixel inner tracker and a silicon microstrip outer tracker. This contribution focuses on the results of the large-scale system testing of the ITk strip detector,...
Defects in CdTe crystals can have great detrimental effects on their performance as radiation detectors [1]. Defects cause charge trapping and recombination, leading to lower signal amplitudes and poor enegy resolution. We have designed and built a modular 3D scanner for analyzing these defects device samples using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. Previous solutions offer great...
Diamond is a very attractive semiconductor material for detectors of ionizing radiation. High carrier mobilities of electrons (2200 cm2/Vs) and holes (1800 cm2/Vs) and excellent radiation hardness are important parameters for radiation detectors. High breakdown voltage and saturation speed are also important in the manufacture of timing detectors. Diamond has a band gap energy of about 5.5 eV...
In this work, we present measurements of the cross-talk probability and the Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) effect with the single-photon sensitive LinoSPAD2 detector with a linear sensor of 512 channels and timing precision of 40 ps r.m.s. Such multichannel single-photon sensitive detectors with high timing precision are highly desirable tools in many fields of research. Apart from the common...
Detection of trace concentrations of tritium using fieldable detectors remains a major need for environmental monitoring and nonproliferation applications, made difficult due to the low energy and short range of the tritium beta ray emission, less than 20 keV. High performance charge-coupled devices (CCDs) developed for astronomy and basic science applications are an attractive option for...
Many synchrotrons worldwide are undergoing upgrades to diffraction limited storage rings (DLSRs). With these planned upgrades, the average energies of many beam lines will increase to $>20 \mathrm{keV}$ and fluxes will also increase considerably to $10^{12} \mathrm{ph} \cdot \mathrm{s}^{-1} \mathrm{~mm}^{-2}$. These challenging specifications require new detector materials to be used as...
A multi-TeV Muon Collider is a promising candidate for the next energy-frontier facility, allowing to achieve with a single machine both high energy reach and clean collision signature in a small environmental footprint. In particular, a collider with the centre-of-mass energy of 10 TeV is the long-term target of the ongoing international design study, while lower intermediate energies...
Imaging relativistic electrons in electron microscopy induces radiation damage in image sensors and detectors that dictates the life time of such devices.
Radiation hardness qualification is a destructive test that potentially raises as many questions as it answers. This work discusses the challenges and presents a characterization of accelerated radiation hardness qualification, to dozens of...
A Gaseous Compton Camera for Gamma Imaging
L. F. N. D. Carramate, R. Mendes, A. Correia, F. Lucas, M. E. Loureiro, V. Bonifácio, J. F. C. A. Veloso, and C. D. R. Azevedo
I3N, Physics Department, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 – Aveiro, Portugal
Compton Cameras have been pointed as a possible Anger Camera competitor due to their enhanced sensitivity in imaging radioactive sources,...
Compelling astrophysical and cosmological evidence for the existence of dark matter (DM) has led to numerous direct detection experiments, including DarkSide, XENON, LZ, etc., searching for particle DM candidates. These experiments rely on noble liquid detectors, in which vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) scintillation or scintillation and ionization, induced by elastic scattering of WIMPs on nuclei,...
Abstract
The recent surge in research and development for data analysis and model prediction presents a unique opportunity for advancements in the field of radiation imaging technologies, ushering a new era for the development of detector characterization techniques and real time signal analysis. A challenge now rises in producing realistic models and accurate data, that describe the...
The forthcoming High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) program presents a formidable challenge for the constituent elements of the CMS Muon Detector. Current systems, encompassing Drift Tubes (DT), Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC), and Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC), are tasked with operating under conditions of 5 times higher instantaneous luminosity than originally designed, demanding endurance for...
The position-sensitive scintillating fiber (SciFi) detector with one-dimensional silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) readout could achieve a better position resolution than typical plastic scintillator detectors which is even comparable to silicon strip detectors but with a much lower cost. In this work, to develop a large-size SciFi detector for muon tomography, a compact multi-channel front-end...
Purpose
As proton therapy is increasingly more popular around the world, there is a push towards advancement in quality assurance and control procedures that would include radiation quality besides standard physical dose verification. The spectrum of linear energy transfer (LET) of protons can provide comprehensive information on radiation quality in a given voxel. The spectral...
Compared to amorphous silicon ($a$-Si)-based x-ray imaging detectors, the advantage of crystalline Si-based detectors is their fast operation at lower noise, including higher sensitivity owing to larger pixel fill-factor designs. Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) active-pixel detectors are substituting the conventional $a$-Si for detectors in various imaging modalities. Imaging...
Quality assurance of many electronic parts, such as lithium-ion batteries, semiconductor packages, and multilayered printed circuit boards (PCBs), requires an exhaustive defect inspection procedure. Computed tomography may be the best non-invasive technique for identifying tiny defects inside products. Considering the geometries of the products to be investigated, the data (projections)...
The High-Intensity Heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) is a leading platform for heavy ion scientific research in China with advanced beam current indicators. Several physics experiments such as the Electron-ion collider in China (EicC), the China Hyper-Nuclear Spectrometer (CHNS), the High energy FRagment Separator (HFRS) are being under construction at HIAF. To measure the position, energy...
In general, the principle of the X-ray transmission imaging system used for container inspection involves irradiating an object with high-energy X-rays and measuring the extent to which the rays penetrate through the object.
However, due to their high penetration capability, high-energy X-rays encounter difficulties in detecting low-density substances such as narcotics (powder) and...
This work presents a comprehensive study on the development of a sophisticated gamma radiation detection system tailored for aerial mapping and radiation surveillance, which is to be used to generate an environmental radioactivity map within the United Arab Emirates (UAE). To optimize detection sensitivity, the project incorporates careful assembly and calibration techniques that make use of...
The Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL) and the High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) are essential platforms for heavy-ion scientific research in Asia. Some experimental facilities are currently under construction at HIRFL and HIAF, such as the CSR External-target Experiment (CEE), the High energy FRagment Separator (HFRS), the China Hyper-Nuclei Spectrometer (CHNS),...
Recently, the measurement of gamma-rays polarization has increasingly become important for applications in various fields such as astrophysics measurements and medical imaging. One common method of gamma-rays polarization measurement is utilizing the formula of differential cross section in Compton scattering, $dσ⁄dφ=A+Bcos(2φ)$, where $φ$ represents the scattering azimuth angle from...
A new single photon-counting ASIC called UFERI (Ultra-Fast Energy Resolved Imager [1]) is under development by the ASIC design group of AGH University and the detector group of the SOLEIL synchrotron. The detector is dedicated to pseudo-Laue diffraction applications in intense, pink beams at synchrotrons. The prototype consists of 42×42 pixels with a pitch of 75 µm, each containing a...
In our presentation, we delve into the investigation of the inter-pad (IP) region within double trench isolated LGADs (2Tr TI-LGADs), focusing on double-trenched PINs from both the RD50 and AIDAInnova production runs. Our previous research revealed that exceptionally large signals, with prolonged duration, manifest in the IP region alongside the standard IP signals recorded in conventional...
Locating radioactive hot spots presents a challenge for the nuclear industry and security applications, such as waste management, decommissioning, radiation protection, and the management of nuclear accidents. Detection of fast-neutron emission offers an alternative technique to gamma imaging for verifying the location of radioactive materials. In this study, we present a prototype of...
The semi-insulating (SI) bulk GaAs has been studied as a material for semiconductor detectors operating at room temperature for decades, exhibiting good gamma and X-ray detection efficiency and stability during its operation. Moreover, its high carrier mobilities up to 8000 and 400 cm2V–1s–1 for electrons and holes, respectively at room temperature ensure high counting rate of SI GaAs...
The interaction of an electron with the dipole field of a neutral atom or molecule can lead to radiative photon emission by analogy with the familiar case of Nuclear Bremsstrahlung. This process is referred to as Neutral Bremsstrahlung and is possible even in noble atoms due to their induced dipole moment. Neutral bremsstrahlung in noble gases has been neglected in favor of excimer-based...
EMPIX2 is a novel hybrid pixel detector readout ASIC for electron microscopy with a maximum frame rate of 100 kfps and a very large dynamic range[1]. It features 128 x 128 square pixels at a pitch of 150 um. The ASIC was bump bonded to 500 m thick silicon pixel sensor and tested.
Based on the EMPIX2 detector testing system, we designed and assembled a prototype camera for electron...
HiZ-GUNDAM is a future satellite mission for gamma-ray burst observations, designed to detect X-ray transients with the wide-field X-ray monitor, and to perform automatic follow-up observations with the near-infrared telescope. The wide-field X-ray monitor consists of an X-ray optical system, Lobster Eye Optics (LEO) and pnCCD imaging sensor to monitor a wide field of view (FoV) of ~0.5...
The TUPI (Timepix-based Ultra-fast Photon Imaging) direct conversion hybrid detector, currently under design at the SIRIUS light source, is a modular photon-counting detector based on the Timepix4 ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). It targets multiple SIRIUS bioimaging beamlines for ORION, Brazil’s first Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) laboratory under design. Each TUPI base module will...
Timepix2 [1] is a hybrid pixel detector developed by the Medipix2 collaboration as the successor to Timepix [2]. Its release introduced significant enhancements, including simultaneous measurement of Time-over-Threshold (ToT) and Time-of-Arrival (ToA), along with additional features such as adaptive gain mode and pixel disabling to reduce chip power consumption. These latter features, coupled...
Data compression is becoming a critical necessity for high throughput synchrotron radiation experiments like Computed Tomography (μ-CT), where the bit depth, data rate, and detector size continue to increase, contributing to the so-called “data deluge” [1]. Previous studies of data compression frameworks for μ-CT based on JPEG-XR [2] highlighted that lossy methodologies can be a...
Designed to function as the primary tracking detector for the future CBM experiment at FAIR, the Silicon Tracking System (STS) is tailored to measure charged particles generated during heavy-ion collisions at unprecedented interaction rates of up to 10 MHz, using a triggerless free-streaming readout approach. The detector modules developed for STS integrate large-area double-sided silicon...
Single-photon counting (SPC) hybrid pixel detectors (HPDs) have brought a new quality to the detection of low- and medium- intensity X-ray radiation. Due to the rapid development of CMOS technology, it is now possible to include much more functionality in each pixel without increasing its dimensions. This opened up new possibilities for SPC readout integrated circuits (ROICs). Counting photons...
The Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), in Campinas, Brazil, part of the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), operates the 4th-generation synchrotron light source SIRIUS. CNPEM is currently running the ORION Project, Latin America's first Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory that will be coupled to SIRIUS by three new beamlines, each of them specialized in...
Gas Proportional Scintillation Counters (GPSC) are gas-filled detectors wherein the charge signal arising from radiation interaction undergoes amplification via secondary scintillation induced by electron impact (electroluminescence) within the gas medium. Primary electrons produced by the interacting radiation migrate towards a scintillation region, where the applied electric field is high...
With the increasing global emphasis on nuclear security and non-proliferation, the detection and identification of nuclear and radioactive materials at the radiological crime scene are of paramount importance. To address this need, in the past free software has been developed identifying the photopeaks of the spectrum [1], [2], [3], [4] and commercial detectors identify the nuclides [5]...
The CMS detector will be upgraded for the HL-LHC to include a MIP Timing Detector (MTD). The MTD will consist of barrel and endcap timing layers, BTL and ETL respectively, providing precision timing of charged particles. The BTL sensors are based on LYSO:Ce scintillation crystals coupled to SiPMs with TOFHIR2 ASICs for the front-end readout. A resolution of 30-60 ps for MIP signals at a rate...
easyPET.3D is a micro-Positron Emission Tomography (micro-PET) scanner, patented and developed by Aveiro University, that can map the β+ emitter radiotracer biodistribution within a living organism. This scanner employs an innovative acquisition method characterized by a synchronous rotation of two sets of detectors with high granularity, using fewer detectors compared to other...
In dental computed tomography (CT), the image quality is usually degraded when patients have metallic objects such as metal implants or metal prosthesis, inducing several detrimental effects such as photon starvation, beam hardening, and photon scattering, all of which contribute to producing metal artifacts [1]. Although various metal artifact reduction (MAR) methods have been developed in...
Micropattern gas detectors (MPGDs) have been applied in many high-energy physics (HEP)experiments. The primary ionization signal generated by radiation in the sensitive volume is amplified through electron charge avalanches produced in the gas, under the high electric fields established across the micropattern elements. The avalanche electrons are, then, read out at the anode electrode....
Noble gas radiation detectors with optical readout are increasingly applied to astrophysics, particle physics and to x- and gamma ray imaging. They are based on the notable characteristic of responding to ionizing radiation interaction by producing both ionization and scintillation signals. In addition, another important asset of noble gases is the possibility to obtain the amplification of...
The CYGNO collaboration is realising a TPC operating at atmospheric pressure, in which the secondary scintillation of a triple-GEM stack is acquired by a system consisting of Active Pixel Sensors based on sCMOS technology, with more than 4 million pixels each, and fast photo-multipliers. This technology provides information such as the released energy and its spatial profile, 3D direction and...
The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment currently measures the effective mass of the electron anti-neutrino by investigating the spectral endpoint of tritium $\beta$-decay. Recently, based on the first two high-activity tritium measurement campaigns, the collaboration published the first sub-eV limit on $m_\nu$ with a value of $m_\nu<0.8\,\rm{eV}$ (90% CL). Given the ultra-luminous...
Some dusts including alpha-ray-emitting radio-active materials are called as "alpha-dust" and their sizes are expected to be less than 100 $\mu$m. These dust are assumed to be generated in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, and their sizes, shapes and nuclear species should be determined to suppress the work list of the decommissioning. In this study, we have developed a prototype of...
NUSES is a pathfinder satellite that will be deployed in a low Earth orbit, designed with new technologies for space-based detectors. The satellite will host two payloads, Terzina and Zirè. Terzina is dedicated to space-based detection of ultra-high-energy extensive air showers, while Zirè focuses on measuring electrons, protons, and light nuclei ranging from a few to hundreds of MeV, as well...
An innovative single-photon detector based on a vacuum tube containing a photocathode, a microchannel plate, and a Timepix4 CMOS ASIC as its read-out anode, is presented. This detector is designed to detect up to 1 billion photons per second over a 7 cm$^2$ active area, achieving simultaneously excellent position and timing resolution of 5-10 $\mu$m and less than $50$ ps. With around $230$...
The DSSC camera was developed for photon science applications in the energy range 0.25-6 keV at the European XFEL in Germany. The first 1-Megapixel DSSC camera [1] is available and is successfully used for scientific experiments at the “Spectroscopy and Coherent Scattering” and the “Small Quantum System” instruments of the European XFEL. The detector is currently the fastest existing 2D camera...
Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are single-photon sensitive detectors that continue to attract increasing interest in several industrial and scientific applications that require fast detection speed, high sensitivity, compactness, insensitivity to magnetic fields and low bias voltages.
SiPMs are also replacing photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), hybrid photodiodes (HPDs), or other in high-energy...
Silicon Carbide (SiC) detectors are recently emerging as promising alternative detectors for many applications in radiation detection, including dosimetry for radiotherapy, thanks to the observed high radiation hardness, time and energy resolution and the very good signal to noise ratio. SiC is, indeed, a semiconductor composed by 50% of silicon and 50% of carbon characterized by a wide...
Members of the Timepix family of detectors [1], [2] have been successfully used
as single-layer particle identification devices in space dosimetry. The advantage
of this approach over standard absorbed dose measurements is that it enables a
more accurate estimate of biological dose because in addition to absorbed dose,
the composition of the radiation field can be analyzed simultaneously....
C. Bălan1,2 *, C. Oancea3, G. Mytsin4, S. Shvidky4, A. Molokanov4, V. Chiș1, C. Granja3
1. Faculty of Physics, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2. Radiotherapy Department, The Oncology Institute “Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuta”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
3. ADVACAM, Prague, Czech Republic
4. Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems, Dubna
*...
Ion beam therapy effectively treats radiation-resistant and deeply located tumors but requires meticulous planning due to wide safety margins imposed by current technology. Proton transmission imaging, using protons instead of x-rays for image acquisition, is pivotal for precise treatment planning by directly probing the proton stopping power, reducing uncertainties, and enabling real-time...
X-and γ-rays are a unique window into the most extreme environments in the Universe such as accretion discs around neutron stars or black holes. The measurement of the polarization of the detected photons adds parameter space further allowing for advancing our current understanding of astrophysical γ-ray sources and environmental conditions by probing physical anisotropies, for example...
X-ray spectral imaging exploits the distinct energy dependence of the attenuation properties of different materials to produce quantitative maps of the chemical components inside a sample. In this context, the continuous development of new energy-sensitive detectors has led to a growing interest in X-ray spectral imaging, thereby enlarging the field of applications. The devices suitable for...
This work focuses on optimizing the properties of photon counting imaging detectors of Timepix family with Silicon, CdTe and GaAs sensors.
The optimization addresses two distinct goals:
a) Achieving the best energy resolution for specific target applications such as X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence imaging or absorption K-edge imaging. The energy resolution of 130 eV (Gaussian fit...
Ion-beam therapy has the great potential to improve cancer treatments compared to the standard radiotherapy based on photons. This is due to the fact that ion beams can provide dose distributions that are strongly focused on the tumor volume.
However, in clinical practice this potential is often not fully exploited, because the highly-focused dose distribution has an increased sensitive to...
Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) is a powerful spectroscopic technique that can probe complex electronic-structural information. Due to the wealth of possible science cases (ranging from quantum-correlated materials to photochemistry and catalysis), RIXS spectrometers have become integral parts of the scientific landscape at most synchrotron facilities and X-ray Free Electron Lasers...
Spectral and phase contrast X-ray imaging techniques have recently emerged as fundamental tools for the improvement of image quality. X-ray spectral imaging (XSI) involves the acquisition of X-ray images at multiple energies, exploiting the energy-dependent nature of X-ray attenuation to provide material composition information. This technique offers an optimal solution for visualizing and...
The High Luminosity LHC upgrade mandates a comprehensive overhaul of the CMS Drift Tubes (DT) electronics due to trigger rates surpassing current capabilities. By leveraging advancements in optical and bandwidth technologies, this upgrade presents an opportunity to redefine the architecture of DT electronics. On-detector functions undergo streamlining to facilitate the relocation of data...
