Li Yuanjing

Measurement of cosmic ray flux in the China JinPing underground laboratory

The China JinPing underground Laboratory (CJPL) is the deepest underground laboratory running in the world at present. In such a deep underground laboratory, the cosmic ray flux is a very important and necessary parameter for rare-event experiments. A plastic scintillator telescope system has been set up to measure the cosmic ray flux. The performance of the telescope system has been studied using the cosmic rays on the ground laboratory near the CJPL. Based on the underground experimental data taken from November 2010 to December 2011 in the CJPL, which has an effective live time of 171 days, the cosmic ray muon flux in the CJPL is measured to be (2.0±0.4)×10-10/(cm2 ·s). The ultra-low cosmic ray background guarantees an ideal environment for dark matter experiments at the CJPL.

An MRPC for fast neutron detection

The possibility to detect fast neutrons with a multi-gap resistive plate chamber (MRPC) has been investigated. To detect fast neutrons, a thin polyethylene layer is coated on the surface of electrode glass as a fast neutron converter. The MRPC detects the charged particles generated by neutrons via the (n,p) reaction on hydrogen. A prototype detector has been developed and tested on fast neutron sources in order to evaluate its performance: good agreement between experimental results and simulation has been achieved. A detailed description of the detector and the experimental test results are presented.

A novel CZT detector using strengthened electric field line anode

In this paper, we report on the design, simulation and testing of a novel CZT detector with an electrode named the Strengthened Electric Field Line Anode (SEFLA). The Strengthened Electric Field (SEF) technique and Single Polarity Charge Sensing (SPCS) technique are implemented. It could achieve the same performance as Coplanar Grid, Pixel Array CZT detectors but requires only a simple readout system. Geant4, Ansoft Maxwell and a self-developed Induced Current Calculator (ICC) package are used to develop an understanding of how the energy spectrum is formed, and the parameters of the detector are optimized. A prototype is fabricated. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this design. The test shows that the SEFLA detector achieves a FWHM of 6.0% @59.5 keV and 1.6% @662 keV, which matches well with the simulations.

Measurement of avalanche size and position resolution of RPCs with different surface resistivities of the high voltage provider

The effects of surface resistivity of the high voltage provider on the space dispersion of the induced charge of a prototype Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) have been studied experimentally and theoretically. The results of both experiment and theory agree and confirm that a two-Gaussian function can be used to fit the dispersion of the induced charge of the RPC. It is shown that the Gaussian function with the narrower width is mainly due to the expansion of the avalanche charge in the gas gap of the RPC, and the Gaussian function with the larger width is due to the charge dispersion when it passes through the resistive carbon film. This will be useful in the RPC design when one wants to make an RPC with high position resolution.

Study of the material photon and electron background and the liquid argon detector veto efficiency of the CDEX-10 experiment

The China Dark Matter Experiment (CDEX) is located at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) and aims to directly detect the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP) flux with high sensitivity in the low mass region. Here we present a study of the predicted photon and electron backgrounds including the background contribution of the structure materials of the germanium detector, the passive shielding materials, and the intrinsic radioactivity of the liquid argon that serves as an anti-Compton active shielding detector. A detailed geometry is modeled and the background contribution has been simulated based on the measured radioactivities of all possible components within the GEANT4 program. Then the photon and electron background level in the energy region of interest (<10−2eventskg1day−1keV−1 (cpkkd)) is predicted based on Monte Carlo simulations. The simulated result is consistent with the design goal of the CDEX-10 experiment, 0.1cpkkd, which shows that the active and passive shield design of CDEX-10 is effective and feasible.

High efficiency event-counting thermal neutron imaging using a Gd-doped micro-channel plate

An event-counting thermal neutron imaging detector based on 3 mol % natGd2O3-doped micro-channel plate (MCP) has been developed and tested. A thermal neutron imaging experiment was carried out with a low flux neutron beam. Detection efficiency of 33% was achieved with only one doped MCP. The spatial resolution of 72 μm RMS is currently limited by the readout anode. A detector with larger area and improved readout method is now being developed.

Study of VUV detector based on thinner THGEM for CDEX

In the China Dark matter EXperiments (CD EX), HPGe is the main target detector while liquid Ar is used to provide the low temperature working environment for HPGe detector. In the meantime, as a scintillation detector, it is also served as a veto detector. Gaseous avalanche Photomultipliers (GPMT) is one of the most promising candidates for the readout of scintillation light from liquid Ar, that is, 128nm Vacuum Ultraviolet light (VUV). Compared with PMT, the GPMT has many advantages, such as lower radioactivity. A kind of GPMT is researched in this study based on THGEM coated with CsI. The influence of different parameters on the THGEM is studied and finally an optimized thinner THGEM (thickness 0.2mm) is selected. CsI is deposited successfully on the top layer of the thinner THGEM by vacuum evaporation. The electric field near the photocathode and gas flowing through the chamber are investigated to get the best working conditions. Simulations and experiment verification are performed and the first detection of VUV using thinner THGEM is carried out successfully.

Employing a Cerenkov detector for the thickness measurement of X-rays in a scattering background

The variation in environmental scattering background is a major source of systematic errors in X-ray inspection and measurement systems. As the energy of these photons consisting of environmental scattering background is much lower generally, the Cerenkov detectors having the detection threshold are likely insensitive to them and able to exclude their influence. A thickness measurement experiment is designed to verify the idea by employing a Cerenkov detector and an ionizing chamber for comparison. Furthermore, it is also found that the application of the Cerenkov detectors is helpful to exclude another systematic error from the variation of low energy components in the spectrum incident on the detector volume.

Monitoring the energy variation of an electron linac using a Cerenkov detector

A new method to monitor the energy variation of a multi-energy electron linac by combining a Cerenkov detector and a CsI(Tl) detector is reported. The signals in the Cerenkov detector show an appreciable but different dependence on the energy of the electron linac from the traditional CsI(Tl) detector due to the particular response of the former to charged electrons with high velocity above threshold. The method is more convenient than the HVL (half-value layer) method which is commonly employed to calibrate the energy of an electron linac for real time monitoring. The preliminary validity of the method is verified in a dual-energy electron linac with 6 MeV and 3 MeV gears. Moreover, the method combining the Cerenkov detector and the CsI(Tl) detector is applicable to probe the X-ray spectrum hardened by the inspected material and may serve as a novel tool for material discrimination with effective atomic number in radiation imaging.

A prototype of a high rating MRPC

Six-gap resistive plate chamber (MRPC) prototypes with semiconductive glass electrodes (bulk resistivity ~ 1010 Ωcm) were studied for suitability in time-of-flight (TOF) applications at high rates. These studies were performed using a continuous electron beam of 800 MeV at IHEP and an X-ray machine. Time resolutions of about 100 ps and efficiencies larger than 90% were obtained for flux densities up to 28 kHz/cm2.