Physics

We report a systematic determination of the responses of PandaX-II, a dual phase xenon time projection chamber detector, to low energy recoils. The electron recoil (ER) and nuclear recoil (NR) responses are calibrated, respectively, with injected tritiated methane or 220 Rn source, and with 241 Am-Be neutron source, within an energy range from 1??5 keV (ER) and 4??0 keV (NR), under the two drift fields of 400 and 317 V/cm. An empirical model is used to fit the light yield and charge yield for both types of recoils. The best fit models can well describe the calibration data. The systematic uncertainties of the fitted models are obtained via statistical comparison against the data.

As part of the upgrade program of the Advanced Virgo interferometer, the installation of new instrumented baffles surrounding the main test masses is foreseen. As a demonstrator, and to validate the technology, the existing baffle in the area of the input mode cleaner end-mirror will be first replaced by a baffle equipped with photodiodes. This paper presents detailed simulations of the light distribution on the input mode cleaner baffle, with the aim to determine the light exposure of the photodiodes under different scenarios of the interferometer operation.

The liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber (TPC) technology is probing a wide range of dark matter masses from sub-GeV to a few TeV. To further improve its sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter and its application in reactor neutrino monitoring via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS), more understanding and suppression of single/few electrons background rate are needed. Here we report on the design and performance of a sealed LXeTPC with a graphene-coated fused silica window as the cathode. The purpose of the sealed TPC is for isolating the liquid xenon target volume from the majority of out-gassing materials in the detector vessel, thus improving the liquid xenon purification efficiency and reducing the impurity-induced single/few electrons background. We investigated the out-gassing rate and purification efficiency using the data from the sealed TPC with a simple purification model. The single electron signals from the photoionization of impurities in LXe are obtained and their correlation with the LXe purity is investigated. The photo-electron emission rate on the graphene-coated electrode is compared to that from stainless steel, the electrode material typically used in LXe detectors. We discuss the possible further improvement and potential applications of the sealed TPC for the next generation liquid xenon experiments for dark matter and neutrino physics.

The FCAL collaboration is preparing large-scale prototypes of special calorimeters to be used in the very forward region at future electron-positron colliders for a precise measurement of integrated luminosity and for instant luminosity measurement and assisting beam-tuning. LumiCal is designed as a silicon-tungsten sandwich calorimeter with very thin sensor planes to keep the Molière radius small, facilitating such the measurement of electron showers in the presence of background. Dedicated front-end electronics has been developed to match the timing and dynamic range requirements. A partially instrumented prototype was investigated in a 1 to 5 GeV electron beam at the DESY II synchrotron. In the recent beam tests, a multi-plane compact prototype was equipped with thin detector planes fully assembled with readout electronics and installed in 1 mm gaps between tungsten plates of one radiation length thickness. High statistics data were used to perform sensor alignment, and to measure the longitudinal and transversal shower development in the sandwich. This talk covers the latest status of the calorimeter prototype development and selected performance results, obtained in test beam measurements, the prospects for the upcoming DESY test beam, as well as the expected simulation performance.

The high-luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider will provide 5-7 times greater luminosities than assumed in the original detector design. An improved trigger system requires an upgrade of the readout electronics of the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter. Concepts for the future readout of the 182,500 calorimeter cells at 40-80 MHz and 16-bit dynamic range and the developments of radiation-tolerant, low-noise, low-power, and high-bandwidth front-end electronic components, including preamplifiers and shapers, 14-bit ADCs, and 10-Gb/s laser diode array drivers, are presented in this paper.

In this study, we have developed a new sub-MeV neutron detector that has a high position resolution, energy resolution, directional sensitivity, and low background. The detector is based on a super-fine-grained nuclear emulsion, called the Nano Imaging Tracker (NIT), and it is capable of detecting neutron induced proton recoils as tracks through topological analysis with sub-micrometric accuracy. We used a type of NIT with AgBr:I crystals of (98 +- 10) nm size dispersed in the gelatin. First, we calibrated the performance of NIT device for detecting monochromatic neutrons with sub-MeV energy generated by nuclear fusion reactions, and the detection efficiency for recoil proton tracks of more than 2 um range was consistently 100\% (the 1 sigma lower limit was 83%) in accordance with expectations by manual based analysis. In addition, recoil energy and angle distribution obtained good agreement with kinematical expectation. The primary neutron energy was reconstructed by using them, and it was evaluated as 42% with FWHM at 540 keV. Furthermore, we demonstrated newly developed an automatic track recognition system dedicated to the track range of more than a few micrometers. It achieved a recognition efficiency of (74 +- 4)%, and recoil energy and angle distribution obtained good agreement with manual analysis. Finally, it indicated the very high rejection power for gamma-rays.

We present our latest ASIC, which is used for the readout of Cadmium Telluride double-sided strip detectors (CdTe DSDs) and high spectroscopic imaging. It is implemented in a 0.35 um CMOS technology (X-Fab XH035), consists of 64 readout channels, and has a function that performs simultaneous AD conversion for each channel. The equivalent noise charge of 54.9 e- +/- 11.3 e- (rms) is measured without connecting the ASIC to any detectors. From the spectroscopy measurements using a CdTe single-sided strip detector, the energy resolution of 1.12 keV (FWHM) is obtained at 13.9 keV, and photons within the energy from 6.4 keV to 122.1 keV are detected. Based on the experimental results, we propose a new low-noise readout architecture making use of a slew-rate limited mode at the shaper followed by a peak detector circuit.

We have developed a neutron imaging sensor based on an INTPIX4-SOI pixelated silicon device. Neutron irradiation tests are performed at several neutron facilities to investigate sensor's responses for neutrons. Detection efficiency is measured to be around 1.5 \% for thermal neutrons. Upper bound of spatial resolution is evaluated to be 4.1±0.2 μ m in terms of a standard deviation of the line spread function.

When characterising beam-sensitive materials in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), low-dose techniques are essential for the reliable observation of samples in their true state. A simple route to minimise both the total electron-dose and the dose-rate is to reduce the electron beam-current and/or raster the probe at higher speeds. At the limit of these settings, and with current detectors, the resulting images suffer from unacceptable artefacts including; signal-streaking, detector-afterglow, and poor signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). In this manuscript we present an alternative approach to capture dark-field STEM images by pulse-counting individual electrons as they are scattered to the annular dark-field (ADF) detector. Digital images formed in this way are immune from analogue artefacts of streaking or afterglow and allow clean, high-SNR images to be obtained even at low beam-currents. We present results from both a ThermoFisher FEI Titan G2 operated at 300kV and a Nion UltraSTEM200 operated at 200kV, and compare the images to conventional analogue recordings. ADF data are compared with analogue counterparts for each instrument, a digital detector-response scan is performed on the Titan, and the overall rastering efficiency is evaluated for various scanning parameters.

We describe optimization of a cryogenic magnetometer that uses nonlinear kinetic inductance in superconducting nanowires as the sensitive element instead of a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The circuit design consists of a loop geometry with two nanowires in parallel, serving as the inductive section of a lumped LC resonator similar to a kinetic inductance detector (KID). This device takes advantage of the multiplexing capability of the KID, allowing for a natural frequency multiplexed readout. The Kinetic Inductance Magnetometer (KIM) is biased with a DC magnetic flux through the inductive loop. A perturbing signal will cause a flux change through the loop, and thus a change in the induced current, which alters the kinetic inductance of the nanowires, causing the resonant frequency of the KIM to shift. This technology has applications in astrophysics, material science, and the medical field for readout of Metallic Magnetic Calorimeters (MMCs), axion detection, and magnetoencephalography (MEG).