M. Gilchriese

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Experiment

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) collaboration has designed and constructed a dual-phase xenon detector, in order to conduct a search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), a leading dark matter candidate. The goal of the LUX detector is to clearly detect (or exclude) WIMPS with a spin independent cross-section per nucleon of 2×10-46cm2, equivalent to ∼1event/100kg/month in the inner 100-kg fiducial volume (FV) of the 370-kg detector. The overall background goals are set to have <1 background events characterized as possible WIMPs in the FV in 300 days of running. This paper describes the design and construction of the LUX detector.

The ATLAS Silicon Pixel Sensors

Prototype sensors for the ATLAS silicon pixel detector have been developed. The design of the sensors is guided by the need to operate them in the severe LHC radiation environment at up to several hundred volts while maintaining a good signal-to-noise ratio, small cell size, and minimal multiple scattering. The ability to be operated under full bias for electrical characterization prior to attachment of the readout integrated circuit electronics is also desired.

The evaporative cooling system for the ATLAS inner detector

This paper describes the evaporative system used to cool the silicon detector structures of the inner detector sub-detectors of the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The motivation for an evaporative system, its design and construction are discussed. In detail the particular requirements of the ATLAS inner detector, technical choices and the qualification and manufacture of final components are addressed. Finally results of initial operational tests are reported. Although the entire system described, the paper focuses on the on-detector aspects. Details of the evaporative cooling plant will be discussed elsewhere.

A measurement of Lorentz angle and spatial resolution of radiation hard silicon pixel sensors

Silicon pixel sensors developed by the ATLAS collaboration to meet LHC requirements and to withstand hadronic irradiation to fluences of up to

Study of indium bumps for the ATLAS pixel detector

10^{15} n_eq/cm^{2}

Electrical characteristics of silicon pixel detectors

have been evaluated using a test beam facility at CERN providing a magnetic field. The Lorentz angle was measured and found to alter from 9.0 deg. before irradiation, when the detectors operated at 150 V bias at B=1.48 T, to 3.1 deg after irradiation and operating at 600 V bias at 1.01 T. In addition to the effect due to magnetic field variation, this change is explained by the variation of the electric field inside the detectors arising from the different bias conditions. The depletion depths of irradiated sensors at various bias voltages were also measured. At 600 V bias 280 micron thick sensors depleted to ~200 micron after irradiation at the design fluence of 1 10^{15} 1 MeV n_eq/cm2 and were almost fully depleted at a fluence of 0.5 * 10^{15} 1 MeV n_eq/cm2. The spatial resolution was measured for angles of incidence between 0 deg and 30 deg. The optimal value was found to be better than 5.3 micron before irradiation and 7.4 micron after irradiation.

Performance of the electrical module prototypes for the ATLAS silicon tracker

The bump-bonding technology is used to join the front-end read-out chips to the silicon substrate of the ATLAS pixel detector. We review the current status of the technology used by Alenia Marconi Systems and we report on the electrical and mechanical properties and the defect rate of the Indium bumps. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Test results on silicon micro-strip detectors for ATLAS

Prototype sensors for the ATLAS silicon pixel detector have been electrically characterized. The current and voltage characteristics, charge-collection efficiencies, and resolutions have been examined. Devices were fabricated on oxygenated and standard detector-grade silicon wafers. Results from prototypes which examine p-stop and standard and moderated p-spray isolation are presented for a variety of geometrical options. Some of the comparisons relate unirradiated sensors with those that have received fluences relevant to LHC operation.

Performance of the ATLAS silicon strip detector modules

Electrical modules for the ATLAS Silicon Tracker (SCT) have been fabricated and tested. The modules consist of 6 ABCD front-end chips connected to silicon strip detectors, with the electronics hybrid and detector geometry as specified for the barrel and forward parts of the tracker. Tests were done with the second batch of the ABCD chip (ABCD2), connected to 6cm or 12cm long strip detectors. The functionality of the modules is demonstrated. The performance of modules depends on the signal gain in ABCD2 chips and on the grounding scheme. The design of the chip has been improved according to these observations. Recent results obtained with the new release of the chip (ABCD2T/NT) mounted on modules with 12cm strip detectors show the expected noise level of less than 1500 el., intrinsic stability and channel matching performance within 5%.

Total dose effects on ATLAS-SCT front-end electronics

We report results from beam tests on silicon microstrip detectors using a binary readout system for ATLAS. The data were collected during the H8 beam test at CERN in August/September 1995 and the KEK test in February 1996. The binary modules tested had been assembled from silicon microstrip detectors of different layout and from front-end electronics chips of different architecture. The efficiency, noise occupancy and position resolution were determined as a function of the threshold setting for various bias voltages and angles of incidence for both irradiated and non-irradiated detectors. In particular, the high spatial resolution of the beam telescope allowed the evaluation of the performance as a function of the track location in between detector strips.