Development of Advanced High Performance Silicon Drift Detectors and Electronics for Synchrotron Radiation and X-ray Astrophysics
Positron emission tomography without image reconstruction
Neuroscience beyond neurons
The full exploitation of the physics potential of the high luminosity LHC is a big challenge. Experiments will have to cope with very high data rates, huge amount of data to process and store, and severe radiation damage for the innermost detectors. This requires new instrumentation and innovative solutions.
State of the art tracking pixel detectors with precise time-tagging show a time...
X-ray analysis is arguably the most powerful, non-destructive tool for investigating materials and doing medical diagnostics. Current lab X-ray sources are commonly based on X-ray tubes, which are limited in brilliance and provide a fixed, broadband X-ray spectrum. For this reason advanced X-ray imaging methods such as K-edge subtraction imaging, phase contrast imaging, coherent diffractive...
We propose to develop silicon sensors with superior time (~10 ps) and position (~10 μm) resolutions with the required robustness to be used in very harsh radiation environments. This can be achieved by taking advantage of the fast response properties of MEMS based 3-Dimensional (3D) sensors with trench-electrodes processed throughout the silicon bulk rather than on the wafer’s surface and a...
The use of fast timing detectors (~10 ps) is crucial for the exploitation of the full potential of the future LHC operation at the highest luminosity. Ongoing R&D on Avalanche PhotoDiodes (APD) and Low Gain Avalanche Diodes (LGAD) has shown that a timing precision of ~30 ps is possible with small size prototypes. However there are issues with the radiation hardness of such devices that needs...
Imaging techniques are essential for medical diagnosis. The traditional scintillation detectors have limited efficiency and resolution, while new semiconductor detectors are expensive. Gas chamber detectors equipped with high granularity charge readout working with high pressure could be an attractive alternative that offers good energy resolution and excellent spatial resolution, a...
The new hadron accelerators under construction will have much higher intensity and power than the actual ones. For example, the European Spallation Source (ESS), a neutron source, located in Lund (Sweden), will produce 5MW proton beam (up to 2 GeV). For the safe and efficient operation of such an accelerator, it is critical to continuously monitor the beam losses and even shut down the beam in...
The trend in subatomic physics experiments is to increase the granularity of measurements, in space and time. Practical difficulties limit the achievable performances, since current experiments mostly rely on the integration of heterogeneous technologies. In contrast, a continuous pixelated sensitive volume could replace a complete complex setup and provide unprecedented performances, if the...
In the field of regenerative medicine therapeutic approaches based on the implantation of stem cell grafts into living hosts are under development. Such therapies hold great promise for the treatment of human diseases; however results from several recent clinical studies have not shown a level of efficacy required for their use as a first-line therapy [1]. This is due to the fact that in most...
GEM-based detectors have had a noticeable development in last years and have successfully been employed in different fields from High Energy Physics to imaging applications. Light production associated to the electron multiplication allows to perform an optical readout of these devices. The big progress achieved in CMOS-based photosensors make possible to develop a high sensitivity, high...
Despite the effort in developing suitable detectors for X-ray fluorescence measurements at synchrotron light sources, e.g. for XRF and XAFS experiments, in many applications the capability of fluorescence spectroscopy detectors is rather limited. The high-rate performances of current detectors may be further challenged due to the ongoing machine upgrades or for the use in future sources where...
Micromegas are Micro-Pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGD), which have been used in many particle and nuclear physics experiments since their invention in 1996. MPGDs provide high gain, fast signals, high rate capabilities, better aging properties, lower cost and simplified manufacturing processes compared to other gaseous detectors. Appropriately designed Micromegas detectors can be used for...
Wireless techniques have developed extremely fast over the last decade and using
them for data and power transmission in particle physics detectors is not science fiction
any more. During the last years several research groups have independently
thought of making it a reality. Wireless techniques became a mature field for research
and new developments might have impact on future particle...
