Garcia, A. R., Martinez, T., Cano-Ott, D., Castilla, J., Guerrero, C., Marin, J., et al. (2012). MONSTER: a time of flight spectrometer for beta-delayed neutron emission measurements. J. Instrum., 7, C05012–12pp.
Abstract: The knowledge of the beta-decay properties of nuclei contributes decisively to our understanding of nuclear phenomena: the beta-delayed neutron emission of neutron rich nuclei plays an important role in the nucleosynthesis r-process and constitutes a probe for nuclear structure of very neutron rich nuclei providing information about the high energy part of the full beta strength (S-beta) function. In addition, beta-delayed neutrons are essential for the control and safety of nuclear reactors. In order to determine the neutron energy spectra and emission probabilities from neutron precursors a MOdular Neutron time-of-flight SpectromeTER (MONSTER) has been proposed for the DESPEC experiment at the future FAIR facility. The design of MONSTER and status of its construction are reported in this work.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2019). Modelling radiation damage to pixel sensors in the ATLAS detector. J. Instrum., 14, P06012–52pp.
Abstract: Silicon pixel detectors are at the core of the current and planned upgrade of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Given their close proximity to the interaction point, these detectors will be exposed to an unprecedented amount of radiation over their lifetime. The current pixel detector will receive damage from non-ionizing radiation in excess of 10(15) 1 MeV n(eq)/cm(2), while the pixel detector designed for the high-luminosity LHC must cope with an order of magnitude larger fluence. This paper presents a digitization model incorporating effects of radiation damage to the pixel sensors. The model is described in detail and predictions for the charge collection efficiency and Lorentz angle are compared with collision data collected between 2015 and 2017 (<= 10(15) 1 MeV n(eq)/cm(2)).
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NEXT Collaboration, Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Felkai, R., Kekic, M., Lopez-March, N., et al. (2020). Mitigation of backgrounds from cosmogenic Xe-137 in xenon gas experiments using He-3 neutron capture. J. Phys. G, 47(7), 075001–17pp.
Abstract: Xe-136 is used as the target medium for many experiments searching for 0 nu beta beta. Despite underground operation, cosmic muons that reach the laboratory can produce spallation neutrons causing activation of detector materials. A potential background that is difficult to veto using muon tagging comes in the form of Xe-137 created by the capture of neutrons on Xe-136. This isotope decays via beta decay with a half-life of 3.8 min and a Q(beta) of similar to 4.16 MeV. This work proposes and explores the concept of adding a small percentage of He-3 to xenon as a means to capture thermal neutrons and reduce the number of activations in the detector volume. When using this technique we find the contamination from Xe-137 activation can be reduced to negligible levels in tonne and multi-tonne scale high pressure gas xenon neutrinoless double beta decay experiments running at any depth in an underground laboratory.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Measurements of sensor radiation damage in the ATLAS inner detector using leakage currents. J. Instrum., 16(8), P08025–46pp.
Abstract: Non-ionizing energy loss causes bulk damage to the silicon sensors of the ATLAS pixel and strip detectors. This damage has important implications for data-taking operations, charged-particle track reconstruction, detector simulations, and physics analysis. This paper presents simulations and measurements of the leakage current in the ATLAS pixel detector and semiconductor tracker as a function of location in the detector and time, using data collected in Run 1 (2010-2012) and Run 2 (2015-2018) of the Large Hadron Collider. The extracted fluence shows a much stronger vertical bar z vertical bar-dependence in the innermost layers than is seen in simulation. Furthermore, the overall fluence on the second innermost layer is significantly higher than in simulation, with better agreement in layers at higher radii. These measurements are important for validating the simulation models and can be used in part to justify safety factors for future detector designs and interventions.
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Poley, L., Blue, A., Bloch, I., Buttar, C., Fadeyev, V., Fernandez-Tejero, J., et al. (2019). Mapping the depleted area of silicon diodes using a micro-focused X-ray beam. J. Instrum., 14, P03024–14pp.
Abstract: For the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS detector at CERN, the current ATLAS Inner Detector will be replaced with the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk). The ITk will be an all-silicon detector, consisting of a pixel tracker and a strip tracker. Sensors for the ITk strip tracker are required to have a low leakage current up to bias voltages of 500V to maintain a low noise and power dissipation. In order to minimise sensor leakage currents, particularly in the high-radiation environment inside the ATLAS detector, sensors are foreseen to be operated at low temperatures and to be manufactured from wafers with a high bulk resistivity of several k Omega.cm. Simulations showed the electric field inside sensors with high bulk resistivity to extend towards the sensor edge, which could lead to increased surface currents for narrow dicing edges. In order to map the electric field inside biased silicon sensors with high bulk resistivity, three diodes from ATLAS silicon strip sensor prototype wafers were studied with a monochromatic, micro-focused X-ray beam at the Diamond Light Source (Didcot, U.K.). For all devices under investigation, the electric field inside the diode was mapped and its dependence on the applied bias voltage was studied.
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