Physics

Chemical extraction using a molecular recognition resin named "Empore Radium Rad Disk" was developed to improve sensitivity for the low concentration of radium (Ra). Compared with the previous method, the extraction process speed was improved by a factor of three and the recovery rate for 226 Ra was also improved from 81 ± 4% to > 99.9%. The sensitivity on the 10 −1 mBq level was achieved using a high purity germanium detector. This improved method was applied to determine 226 Ra in Gd 2 (SO 4 ) 3 ⋅ 8H 2 O which will be used in the Super-Kamiokande Gadolinium project. The improvement and measurement results are reported in this paper.

This paper describes hardware and software improvements of the INRIM coaxial microcalorimeter together with their outcome on the primary power standard realization in the frequency band 0.05 - 40 GHz. A better temperature and power stabilization turned out to provide an improved signal/noise ratio and a drift reduction in every working condition of the microcalorimeter. The INRIM correction model is also compared to a traditional, but faster, one in terms of measurement uncertainty. Outcomes are presented in form of a 2.92 mm thermoelectric power sensor calibration together with results that show the improved stability and repeatability of the measurement system.

Teleseismic, or distant, earthquakes regularly disrupt the operation of ground--based gravitational wave detectors such as Advanced LIGO. Here, we present \emph{EQ mode}, a new global control scheme, consisting of an automated sequence of optimized control filters that reduces and coordinates the motion of the seismic isolation platforms during earthquakes. This, in turn, suppresses the differential motion of the interferometer arms with respect to one another, resulting in a reduction of DARM signal at frequencies below 100\,mHz. Our method greatly improved the interferometers' capability to remain operational during earthquakes, with ground velocities up to 3.9\, μm/s rms in the beam direction, setting a new record for both detectors. This sets a milestone in seismic controls of the Advanced LIGO detectors' ability to manage high ground motion induced by earthquakes, opening a path for further robust operation in other extreme environmental conditions.

It is challenging to achieve high precision energy resolution for large liquid scintillator detectors. Energy non-uniformity is one of the main obstacles. To surmount it, a calibration-data driven method was developed previously to reconstruct event energy in the JUNO experiment. In this paper, we investigated the choice of calibration sources thoroughly, optimized the calibration positions and corrected the residual detector azimuthal asymmetry. All these efforts lead to a reduction of the energy non-uniformity near the detector boundary, from about 0.64% to 0.38%. And within the fiducial volume of the detector it is improved from 0.3% to 0.17%. As a result the energy resolution could be further improved.

Metalenses are optical devices that implement nanostructures as phase shifters to focus incident light. Their compactness and simple fabrication make them a potential cost-effective solution for increasing light collection efficiency in particle detectors with limited photosensitive area coverage. Here we report on the characterization and performance of metalenses in increasing the light collection efficiency of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) of various sizes using an LED of 630~nm, and find a six to seven-fold increase in signal for a 1.3×1.3 mm 2 SiPM when coupled with a 10-mm-diameter metalens manufactured using deep ultraviolet stepper lithography. Such improvements could be valuable for future generations of particle detectors, particularly those employed in rare-event searches such as dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay.

NaI(Tl) crystals are used as particle detectors in a variety of rare-event search experiments because of their superb light-emission quality. The crystal light yield is generally high, above 10 photoelectrons per keV, and its emission spectrum is peaked around 400 nm, which matches well to the sensitive region of bialkali photocathode photomultiplier tubes. However, since NaI(Tl) crystals are hygroscopic, a sophisticated method of encapsulation has to be applied that prevents moisture from chemically attacking the crystal and thereby degrading the emission. In addition, operation with low energy thresholds, which is essential for a number of new phenomenon searches, is usually limited by the crystal light yield; in these cases higher light yields can translate into lower thresholds that improve the experimental sensitivity. Here we describe the development of an encapsulation technique that simplifies the overall design by attaching the photo sensors directly to the crystal so that light losses are minimized. The light yield of a NaI(Tl) crystal encapsulated with this technique was improved by more than 30%, and as many as 22 photoelectrons per keV have been measured. Consequently, the energy threshold can be lowered and the energy resolution improved. Detectors with this higher light yield are sensitive to events with sub-keV energies and well suited for low-mass dark matter particle searches and measurements of neutrino-nucleus coherent scattering.

Deterioration of the operation parameters of Al/SiO2/p-type Si surface barrier detector upon irradiation with alpha-particles at room temperature was investigated. As a result of 40-days irradiation with a total fluence of 8*10^9 {\alpha}-particles, an increase of {\alpha}-peak FWHM from 70 keV to 100 keV was observed and explained by increase of the detector reverse current due to formation of a high concentration of near mid-gap defect levels. Performed CV measurements revealed the appearance of at least 6*10^12 cm-3 radiation-induced acceptors at the depths where according to the TRIM simulations the highest concentration of vacancy-interstitial pairs was created by the incoming {\alpha}-particles. The studies carried out by current-DLTS technique allowed to associate the observed increase of the acceptor concentration with the near mid-gap acceptor level at EV+0.56 eV. This level can be apparently associated with V2O defects recognized previously to be responsible for the space charge sign inversion in the irradiated n-type Si detectors.

In recognition of the catalytic role of instruments, we report on an original, low-cost, robust, LabVIEW-based automation development environment configuration and application to reformation of a legacy laser atomic spectroscopy system. Open source, version and configuration control, full back-up, and remote/distributed capability characteristics make the new environment 500% better. System reformation using reusable type definitions, functional encapsulation, increased modularization, and polymorphism boosted performance 983%. Both the environment configuration and reformation strategies are transferrable to most endeavors.

Collinear laser spectroscopy is one of the essential tools for nuclear-structure studies. It allows nuclear electromagnetic properties of ground and isomeric states to be extracted with high experimental precision. Radioactive-beam facilities worldwide strive to introduce such capabilities or to improve existing ones. Here we present the implementation of collinear laser spectroscopy at the ALTO research laboratory, along with data from successful off-line commissioning using sodium beam. The instrumental constituents are discussed with emphasis on simple technical solutions and maximized use of standard equipment. Potential future applications are outlined.

We show several techniques for using integrated-photonic waveguide structures to simultaneously characterize multiple waveguide-integrated superconducting-nanowire detectors with a single fiber input. The first set of structures allows direct comparison of detector performance of waveguide-integrated detectors with various widths and lengths. The second type of demonstrated integrated-photonic structure allows us to achieve detection with a high dynamic range. This device allows a small number of detectors to count photons across many orders of magnitude in count rate. However, we find a stray light floor of -30 dB limits the dynamic range to three orders of magnitude. To assess the utility of the detectors for use in synapses in spiking neural systems, we measured the response with average incident photon numbers ranging from less than 10 −3 to greater than 10 . The detector response is identical across this entire range, indicating that synaptic responses based on these detectors will be independent of the number of incident photons in a communication pulse. Such a binary response is ideal for communication in neural systems. We further demonstrate that the response has a linear dependence of output current pulse height on bias current with up to a factor of 1.7 tunability in pulse height. Throughout the work, we compare room-temperature measurements to cryogenic measurements. The agreement indicates room-temperature measurements can be used to determine important properties of the detectors.