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19 results on '"G. St-Hilaire"'

1. Imaging individual barium atoms in solid xenon for barium tagging in nEXO

Author

X. S. Jiang, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, T. Tolba, S. Rescia, D. Fairbank, A. Piepke, Y. Y. Ding, O. Zeldovich, D. Kodroff, T. Daniels, J. Echevers, R. DeVoe, M. Hughes, Simon Johnston, R. Saldanha, O. Nusair, R. Krücken, Alexis G. Schubert, R. MacLellan, G. St-Hilaire, C. Chambers, I. J. Arnquist, Lorenzo Fabris, J.-L. Vuilleumier, N. Roy, Yuehe Lin, U. Wichoski, L. Cao, David Moore, B. T. Cleveland, John L. Orrell, S. Kravitz, F. Nolet, Veljko Radeka, Jens Dilling, B. Mong, M. Wagenpfeil, J. Dalmasson, T. Ziegler, J. P. Brodsky, T. Bhatta, P. C. Rowson, A.C. Odian, I. Badhrees, M. Heffner, Z. Li, Gerrit Wrede, D. Fudenberg, S. X. Wu, M. Tarka, F. Vachon, G. Li, Douglas H Beck, L. J. Wen, S. Parent, Samuele Sangiorgio, A. House, David Leonard, W. Cree, L. Darroch, J. Todd, G. Gallina, Y-R Yen, Thomas Koffas, W. M. Fairbank, I. Ostrovskiy, K. S. Kumar, D. A. Harris, X.L. Sun, J. B. Zhao, S. Delaquis, T. Stiegler, A. Kuchenkov, M. J. Dolinski, X. F. Wu, A. Larson, Yunyan Zhou, O. Njoya, E. V. Hansen, Giorgio Gratta, K. Skarpaas, Ethan Brown, A. Iverson, Triveni Rao, M. Weber, Shu Li, A. Karelin, P. Hufschmidt, David A. Sinclair, Wei Wu, R.J. Newby, T. Rossignol, M. J. Jewell, Qun-Yao Wang, Zhijun Ning, Y. Ito, L. J. Kaufman, Wei Wei, Rejean Fontaine, S. J. Daugherty, F. Bourque, Y. Lan, Liang Yang, R. Tsang, A. Jamil, S. Feyzbakhsh, C. Licciardi, W. R. Cen, R. Gornea, Guofu Cao, E. Raguzin, J. Farine, Eric W. Hoppe, Gerard Visser, A. Burenkov, T. Brunner, Arun Kumar Soma, Justin Albert, J. Watkins, V.N. Stekhanov, M. Coon, A. Pocar, Cory T. Overman, T. Tsang, A. Craycraft, Venkatesh Veeraraghavan, F. Retiere, Angelo Dragone, Jochen M. Schneider, Qing Xia, X. Zhang, M. Chiu, J. Hößl, P. S. Barbeau, G. S. Ortega, Jean-Francois Pratte, V. A. Belov, M. Oriunno, Serge A. Charlebois, T. I. Totev, K. Murray, Gisela Anton, T. Walton, J. Daughhetee, A. E. Robinson, K. Odgers, M. Côté, Thilo Michel, and Gabriele Giacomini

Subjects
Physics, Sapphire window, Multidisciplinary, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Analytical chemistry, chemistry.chemical_element, Barium, 01 natural sciences, Particle identification, Background level, Xenon, chemistry, Double beta decay, 0103 physical sciences, Atom, Neutrino, 010306 general physics
Abstract

Author(s): Chambers, C; Walton, T; Fairbank, D; Craycraft, A; Yahne, DR; Todd, J; Iverson, A; Fairbank, W; Alamare, A; Albert, JB; Anton, G; Arnquist, IJ; Badhrees, I; Barbeau, PS; Beck, D; Belov, V; Bhatta, T; Bourque, F; Brodsky, JP; Brown, E; Brunner, T; Burenkov, A; Cao, GF; Cao, L; Cen, WR; Charlebois, SA; Chiu, M; Cleveland, B; Coon, M; Cree, W; Cote, M; Dalmasson, J; Daniels, T; Darroch, L; Daugherty, SJ; Daughhetee, J; Delaquis, S; Mesrobian-Kabakian, A Der; DeVoe, R; Dilling, J; Ding, YY; Dolinski, MJ; Dragone, A; Echevers, J; Fabris, L; Farine, J; Feyzbakhsh, S; Fontaine, R; Fudenberg, D; Giacomini, G; Gornea, R; Gratta, G; Hansen, EV; Heffner, M; Hoppe, EW; Hosl, J; House, A; Hufschmidt, P; Hughes, M; Ito, Y; Jamil, A; Jessiman, C; Jewell, MJ; Jiang, XS; Karelin, A; Kaufman, LJ; Kodroff, D; Koffas, T; Kravitz, S; Krucken, R; Kuchenkov, A; Kumar, KS; Lan, Y; Larson, A; Leonard, DS; Li, G; Li, S; Li, Z; Licciardi, C; Lin, YH; Lv, P; MacLellan, R; Michel, T; Mong, B; Moore, DC | Abstract: The search for neutrinoless double beta decay probes the fundamental properties of neutrinos, including whether or not the neutrino and antineutrino are distinct. Double beta detectors are large and expensive, so background reduction is essential for extracting the highest sensitivity. The identification, or 'tagging', of the $^{136}$Ba daughter atom from double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe provides a technique for eliminating backgrounds in the nEXO neutrinoless double beta decay experiment. The tagging scheme studied in this work utilizes a cryogenic probe to trap the barium atom in solid xenon, where the barium atom is tagged via fluorescence imaging in the solid xenon matrix. Here we demonstrate imaging and counting of individual atoms of barium in solid xenon by scanning a focused laser across a solid xenon matrix deposited on a sapphire window. When the laser sits on an individual atom, the fluorescence persists for $\sim$30~s before dropping abruptly to the background level, a clear confirmation of one-atom imaging. No barium fluorescence persists following evaporation of a barium deposit to a limit of $\leq$0.16\%. This is the first time that single atoms have been imaged in solid noble element. It establishes the basic principle of a barium tagging technique for nEXO.

Published
2019
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2. Event Reconstruction in a Liquid Xenon Time Projection Chamber with an Optically-Open Field Cage

Author

B. Chana, N. Roy, L. Cao, O. Nusair, G. St-Hilaire, Douglas H Beck, R. Krücken, F. Nolet, E. Raguzin, P. A. Breur, T. McElroy, T. Bhatta, L. J. Kaufman, Gerard Visser, D. Goeldi, M. Coon, Eric W. Hoppe, F. Vachon, Z. Li, C. Chambers, Veljko Radeka, Cory T. Overman, L. J. Wen, J. L. Vuilleumier, Samuele Sangiorgio, L. Darroch, P. Gautam, P. Nakarmi, Kaixuan Ni, K. S. Kumar, A. De St. Croix, R. Tsang, Haijun Yang, E. V. Hansen, P. Lv, E. Caden, S. X. Wu, J. Hößl, P. S. Barbeau, Lorenzo Fabris, I. J. Arnquist, R. Gornea, P. C. Rowson, V.N. Stekhanov, X. S. Jiang, C. Licciardi, A. Jamil, A. House, A. Piepke, J. Todd, G. Gallina, S. Thibado, Y. Y. Ding, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, N. Massacret, M. Heffner, R. MacLellan, S. Viel, M. Worcester, Thilo Michel, V. Veeraraghavan, Qing Xia, M. Hughes, G. Li, Sergio Ferrara, S. Al Kharusi, R. DeVoe, A. Pocar, M. Walent, B. G. Lenardo, Arun Kumar Soma, S. Feyzbakhsh, Y. Lan, G. S. Ortega, B. T. Cleveland, K. Deslandes, T. Brunner, A. Kuchenkov, M. Medina-Peregrina, Serge A. Charlebois, F. Retiere, David Moore, M. Chiu, J. P. Brodsky, M. Tarka, F. Edaltafar, T. Wager, K. G. Leach, Wei Wu, R.J. Newby, Qun-Yao Wang, Zhijun Ning, M. Oriunno, Aleksey E. Bolotnikov, K. Murray, Gisela Anton, K. Odgers, B. Mong, M. J. Dolinski, David Leonard, Thomas Koffas, W. M. Fairbank, T. Tsang, T. Stiegler, Jean-Francois Pratte, Angelo Dragone, M. Elbeltagi, John L. Orrell, T. Daniels, Wei Wei, H. Rasiwala, I. Ostrovskiy, Yu-Guang Zhou, S. Rescia, D. Fairbank, Guofu Cao, Mike Richman, O. Njoya, T. I. Totev, A. Iverson, K. Skarpaas Viii, Shu Li, Giorgio Gratta, U. Wichoski, L. Yang, T. Rossignol, M. J. Jewell, A. Craycraft, T. Ziegler, Gabriele Giacomini, J. Echevers, Jens Dilling, C.R. Natzke, I. Badhrees, A. Tidball, M. L. di Vacri, C. Vivo-Vilches, S. Parent, A. Odian, O. Zeldovich, R. Saldanha, M. Wagenpfeil, J. Dalmasson, X.L. Sun, J. B. Zhao, X. F. Wu, A. Larson, Ethan Brown, A. Karelin, J. Farine, V. Belov, and A. Robinson

Subjects
Physics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Scintillation, Photon, Time projection chamber, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Field (physics), 010308 nuclear & particles physics, chemistry.chemical_element, FOS: Physical sciences, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), 01 natural sciences, Xenon, chemistry, Double beta decay, Ionization, 0103 physical sciences, Atomic physics, 010306 general physics, Instrumentation, Event reconstruction
Abstract

nEXO is a proposed tonne-scale neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) experiment using liquid ${}^{136}Xe$ (LXe) in a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) to read out ionization and scintillation signals. Between the field cage and the LXe vessel, a layer of LXe ("skin" LXe) is present, where no ionization signal is collected. Only scintillation photons are detected, owing to the lack of optical barrier around the field cage. In this work, we show that the light originating in the skin LXe region can be used to improve background discrimination by 5% over previous published estimates. This improvement comes from two elements. First, a fraction of the $\gamma$-ray background is removed by identifying light from interactions with an energy deposition in the skin LXe. Second, background from ${}^{222}Rn$ dissolved in the skin LXe can be efficiently rejected by tagging the $\alpha$ decay in the ${}^{214}Bi-{}^{214}Po$ chain in the skin LXe., Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures

Published
2020
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3. Measurements of electron transport in liquid and gas Xenon using a laser-driven photocathode

Author

R. Saldanha, I. Ostrovskiy, D. Kodroff, M. J. Dolinski, S. Rescia, John L. Orrell, T. Daniels, P. Gautam, D. Fairbank, Z. Li, E. Caden, E. V. Hansen, Gerard Visser, J. Watkins, Mike Richman, O. Njoya, R. MacLellan, He-Run Yang, A. Iverson, Triveni Rao, K. Skarpaas Viii, Liang Yang, R. Tsang, Gabriele Giacomini, A. Jamil, Pengpeng Lv, O. Nusair, R. Krücken, Shu Li, J. Echevers, Yu-Guang Zhou, Sergio Ferrara, B. Chana, Y. Lan, M. L. di Vacri, U. Wichoski, T. Wager, J. P. Brodsky, C. Vivo-Vilches, I. J. Arnquist, D. Beck, Thilo Michel, Y-R Yen, T. Tsang, T. Tolba, J. Runge, Yuehe Lin, T. Ziegler, Qun-Yao Wang, P. Nakarmi, Guofu Cao, M. Hughes, Jens Dilling, R. Fontaine, David Leonard, M. Heffner, Angelo Dragone, J. L. Vuilleumier, M. Walent, S. Al Kharusi, I. Badhrees, M. Tarka, Thomas Koffas, W. M. Fairbank, B. G. Lenardo, S. Viel, Arun Kumar Soma, T. Brunner, D. Goeldi, L. J. Kaufman, T. Stiegler, Samuele Sangiorgio, Xuan Wu, K. S. Kumar, S. Parent, M. Elbeltagi, M. Coon, K. G. Leach, David Moore, Wei Wei, Qing Xia, J. Farine, G. S. Ortega, Cory T. Overman, Wei Wu, R.J. Newby, P. C. Rowson, S. X. Wu, S. J. Daugherty, Serge A. Charlebois, A. House, G. St-Hilaire, S. Feyzbakhsh, P. S. Barbeau, A. Robinson, T. Bhatta, V. A. Belov, A.C. Odian, O. Zeldovich, Eric W. Hoppe, A. Piepke, J. Todd, L. Darroch, Y. Y. Ding, M. Oriunno, C. Chambers, A. Pocar, V.N. Stekhanov, B. T. Cleveland, T. Rossignol, A. Kuchenkov, M. J. Jewell, Veljko Radeka, X. S. Jiang, C. Licciardi, G. Gallina, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, V. Veeraraghavan, A. Fucarino, Giorgio Gratta, M. Chiu, K. Murray, Gisela Anton, K. Odgers, E. Raguzin, J. Hossl, R. DeVoe, W. R. Cen, M. Medina-Peregrina, R. Gornea, F. Retiere, B. Mong, M. Wagenpfeil, J. Dalmasson, M. Ward, G. S. Li, X.L. Sun, J. B. Zhao, A. Larson, A. Craycraft, Ethan Brown, C.R. Natzke, A. Karelin, Jean-Francois Pratte, Z. Ning, T. I. Totev, A. De St. Croix, Lorenzo Fabris, N. Roy, L. Cao, F. Nolet, T. McElroy, F. Vachon, L. J. Wen, and Marc Weber

Subjects
Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Physics::Instrumentation and Detectors, FOS: Physical sciences, chemistry.chemical_element, Electron, medicine.disease_cause, 7. Clean energy, 01 natural sciences, Photocathode, Xenon, Electric field, 0103 physical sciences, medicine, Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex), 010306 general physics, Instrumentation, Nuclear Experiment, Physics, Argon, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), Photoelectric effect, chemistry, Quantum efficiency, High Energy Physics::Experiment, Atomic physics, Ultraviolet
Abstract

Measurements of electron drift properties in liquid and gaseous xenon are reported. The electrons are generated by the photoelectric effect in a semi-transparent gold photocathode driven in transmission mode with a pulsed ultraviolet laser. The charges drift and diffuse in a small chamber at various electric fields and a fixed drift distance of 2.0 cm. At an electric field of 0.5 kV/cm, the measured drift velocities and corresponding temperature coefficients respectively are 1 . 97 ± 0 . 04 m m ∕ μ s and ( − 0 . 69 ± 0 . 05 ) %/K for liquid xenon, and 1 . 42 ± 0 . 03 m m ∕ μ s and ( + 0 . 11 ± 0 . 01 ) %/K for gaseous xenon at 1.5 bar. In addition, we measure longitudinal diffusion coefficients of 25 . 7 ± 4 . 6 cm 2 /s and 149 ± 23 cm 2 /s, for liquid and gas, respectively. The quantum efficiency of the gold photocathode is studied at the photon energy of 4.73 eV in liquid and gaseous xenon, and vacuum. These charge transport properties and the behavior of photocathodes in a xenon environment are important in designing and calibrating future large scale noble liquid detectors.

Published
2019

4. Characterization of the Hamamatsu VUV4 MPPCs for nEXO

Author

P. Giampa, G. Li, D. Kodroff, M. Wagenpfeil, J. Dalmasson, Eric W. Hoppe, N. Roy, David Leonard, J. Blatchford, Thomas Koffas, E. V. Hansen, W. M. Fairbank, P. Gautam, B. T. Cleveland, K. Odgers, L. Cao, Liang Yang, A. Jamil, S. Rescia, T. Stiegler, E. Raguzin, M. Elbeltagi, R. MacLellan, A. Kuchenkov, Arun Kumar Soma, F. Nolet, X.L. Sun, T. Bhatta, D. Fairbank, J. B. Zhao, T. McElroy, A. Larson, Jean-Francois Pratte, B. Mong, F. Vachon, Marc Weber, G. St-Hilaire, P. Margetak, P. Nakarmi, M. Chiu, J. Farine, J. Echevers, C. Chambers, G. Zhang, M. Oriunno, P. C. Rowson, A. Robinson, I. J. Arnquist, S. X. Wu, Douglas H Beck, Qing Xia, U. Wichoski, Ethan Brown, A. House, K. Murray, Y-R Yen, L. Darroch, G. S. Ortega, R. DeVoe, Gisela Anton, T. Ziegler, O. Zeldovich, J. P. Brodsky, T. I. Totev, M. Heffner, Qun-Yao Wang, T. Tolba, W. R. Cen, S. J. Daugherty, A. De St. Croix, G. Gallina, R. Gornea, Serge A. Charlebois, T. Rossignol, Zhijun Ning, M. Tarka, M. J. Jewell, Lorenzo Fabris, J. L. Vuilleumier, M. Walent, John L. Orrell, T. Daniels, R. Tsang, B. G. Lenardo, T. Brunner, K. Skarpaas, P. Lv, V. Veeraraghavan, A. Karelin, J. Todd, Y. Y. Ding, O. Nusair, R. Krücken, Veljko Radeka, Wei Wu, R.J. Newby, M. Hughes, R. Saldanha, S. Al Kharusi, Giorgio Gratta, Martin Ward, He-Run Yang, David Moore, M. Alfaris, S. Feyzbakhsh, A. Craycraft, Y. Ito, L. J. Kaufman, Y. Lan, Yuehe Lin, Z. Li, Samuele Sangiorgio, Wei Wei, F. Retière, K. S. Kumar, J. Hößl, P. S. Barbeau, V. A. Belov, Thilo Michel, J. Kroeger, Xuan Wu, A. Pocar, A. Piepke, V.N. Stekhanov, D. Qiu, M. Coon, Cory T. Overman, T. Tsang, Angelo Dragone, Gabriele Giacomini, Jens Dilling, I. Badhrees, S. Parent, A. Odian, I. Ostrovskiy, Gerard Visser, Mike Richman, O. Njoya, A. Iverson, Shu Li, J. Watkins, M. Medina-Peregrina, X. S. Jiang, C. Licciardi, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, Yu-Guang Zhou, Liangjian Wen, Luca Doria, Guofu Cao, Rejean Fontaine, and M. J. Dolinski

Subjects
010302 applied physics, Physics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Scintillation, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Analytical chemistry, FOS: Physical sciences, chemistry.chemical_element, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), 01 natural sciences, Xenon, chemistry, 0103 physical sciences, Saturation (graph theory), Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Instrumentation, Photon detection, Dark current
Abstract

In this paper we report on the characterization of the Hamamatsu VUV4 (S/N: S13370-6152) Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) sensitive Multi-Pixel Photon Counters (MPPC)s as part of the development of a solution for the detection of liquid xenon scintillation light for the nEXO experiment. Various MPPC features, such as: dark noise, gain, correlated avalanches, direct crosstalk and Photon Detection Efficiency (PDE) were measured in a dedicated setup at TRIUMF. MPPCs were characterized in the range 163 K ≤ T ≤ 233 K . At an over voltage of 3 . 1 ± 0 . 2 V and at T = 163 K we report a number of Correlated Avalanches (CAs) per pulse in the 1 μ s interval following the trigger pulse of 0 . 161 ± 0 . 005 . At the same settings the Dark-Noise (DN) rate is 0 . 137 ± 0 . 002 Hz/mm 2 . Both the number of CAs and the DN rate are within nEXO specifications. The PDE of the Hamamatsu VUV4 was measured for two different devices at T = 233 K for a mean wavelength of 189 ± 7 nm . At 3 . 6 ± 0 . 2 V and 3 . 5 ± 0 . 2 V of over voltage we report a PDE of 13 . 4 ± 2 . 6 % and 11 ± 2 % , corresponding to a saturation PDE of 14 . 8 ± 2 . 8 % and 12 . 2 ± 2 . 3 % , respectively. Both values are well below the 24 % saturation PDE advertised by Hamamatsu. More generally, the second device tested at 3 . 5 ± 0 . 2 V of over voltage is below the nEXO PDE requirement. The first one instead yields a PDE that is marginally close to meeting the nEXO specifications. This suggests that with modest improvements the Hamamatsu VUV4 MPPCs could be considered as an alternative to the FBK-LF Silicon Photo-Multipliers for the final design of the nEXO detector.

Published
2019

5. Reflectance of Silicon Photomultipliers at Vacuum Ultraviolet Wavelengths

Author

E. Caden, S. Rescia, D. Fairbank, G. St-Hilaire, Thilo Michel, A. Craycraft, Jens Dilling, I. Badhrees, A. De St. Croix, X. S. Jiang, C. Licciardi, J. Farine, M. Walent, S. Feyzbakhsh, V. Belov, C.R. Natzke, B. G. Lenardo, A. Robinson, P. Nakarmi, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, T. Brunner, L. Darroch, J. Echevers, Xuan Wu, S. Parent, A. Odian, A. Fucarino, Jean-Francois Pratte, Yu-Guang Zhou, E. Raguzin, T. Rossignol, Z. Li, O. Nusair, J. L. Vuilleumier, R. Krücken, M. Hughes, V. Veeraraghavan, M. J. Jewell, R. Saldanha, T. I. Totev, P. A. Breur, K. Skarpaas, Gerard Visser, S. Al Kharusi, I. Ostrovskiy, B. T. Cleveland, A. Kuchenkov, Liangjian Wen, Luca Doria, Guofu Cao, Samuele Sangiorgio, Wei Wei, K. S. Kumar, Mike Richman, David Moore, O. Njoya, A. Iverson, T. Bhatta, M. Chiu, G. S. Li, Thomas Tsang, Shu Li, Y. Lan, B. Chana, Douglas H Beck, L. Yang, M. Oriunno, J. P. Brodsky, P. S. Barbeau, He-Run Yang, R. DeVoe, K. Murray, J. Watkins, M. Tarka, Gisela Anton, R. Tsang, M. L. di Vacri, K. Odgers, M. J. Dolinski, M. Medina-Peregrina, C. Vivo-Vilches, F. Retiere, U. Wichoski, Sergio Ferrara, O. Zeldovich, K. G. Leach, T. Ziegler, R. Gornea, K. Deslandes, David Leonard, Giorgio Gratta, Thomas Koffas, W. M. Fairbank, Wei Wu, R.J. Newby, P. C. Rowson, T. Stiegler, M. Elbeltagi, Lorenzo Fabris, J. Hobl, A. House, N. Roy, L. Cao, F. Nolet, N. Massacret, T. McElroy, S. X. Wu, F. Vachon, C. Chambers, R. MacLellan, A. Pocar, V.N. Stekhanov, P. Gautam, F. Edaltafar, D. Goeldi, M. Coon, I. J. Arnquist, J. Runge, Cory T. Overman, M. Heffner, S. Viel, G. Gallina, Angelo Dragone, Gabriele Giacomini, P. Lv, A. Piepke, J. Todd, Y. Y. Ding, Veljko Radeka, T. Wager, Qun-Yao Wang, Zhijun Ning, E. V. Hansen, A. Jamil, Arun Kumar Soma, Qing Xia, S. Byrne Mamahit, Ethan Brown, A. Karelin, G. S. Ortega, M. Wagenpfeil, J. Dalmasson, X.L. Sun, J. B. Zhao, A. Larson, Serge A. Charlebois, John L. Orrell, T. Daniels, B. Mong, L. J. Kaufman, and Eric W. Hoppe

Subjects
Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Materials science, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Silicon, chemistry.chemical_element, Photodetector, FOS: Physical sciences, 01 natural sciences, 7. Clean energy, High Energy Physics - Experiment, High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex), Xenon, Silicon photomultiplier, 0103 physical sciences, Wafer, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, business.industry, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), Nuclear Energy and Engineering, chemistry, Optoelectronics, Diffuse reflection, Photonics, business, Refractive index
Abstract

Characterization of the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) reflectance of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) is important for large-scale SiPM-based photodetector systems. We report the angular dependence of the specular reflectance in a vacuum of SiPMs manufactured by Fondazionc Bruno Kessler (FBK) and Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) over wavelengths ranging from 120 nm to 280 nm. Refractive index and extinction coefficient of the thin silicon-dioxide film deposited on the surface of the FBK SiPMs are derived from reflectance data of a FBK silicon wafer with the same deposited oxide film as SiPMs. The diffuse reflectance of SiPMs is also measured at 193 nm. We use the VUV spectral dependence of the optical constants to predict the reflectance of the FBK silicon wafer and FBK SiPMs in liquid xenon.

Published
2019
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6. Simulation of charge readout with segmented tiles in nEXO

Author

F. Retière, M. Medina-Peregrina, Venkatesh Veeraraghavan, J. Hößl, Gerard Visser, J. L. Vuilleumier, L. Darroch, M. Chiu, J. Watkins, V. A. Belov, Yang Haibo, A. De St. Croix, V. Radeka, D. Fairbank, T. McElroy, T. Bhatta, A. Pocar, D. S. Leonard, J. Echevers, E. Caden, A. Craycraft, R. DeVoe, Lorenzo Fabris, C. T. Overman, E. Raguzin, C. Vivo-Vilches, Qing Xia, M. J. Jewell, Xiaoyang Sun, R. Gornea, J. Dalmasson, S. Feyzbakhsh, P. Gautam, G. S. Ortega, A. Piepke, I. Ostrovskiy, P. Lv, M. Hughes, Thilo Michel, T. Ziegler, C.R. Natzke, Z. Ning, Xuan Wu, F. Vachon, Sergio Ferrara, Serge A. Charlebois, S. X. Wu, V.N. Stekhanov, M. Walent, S. Al Kharusi, J. B. Zhao, A. Larson, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A. E. Robinson, Mike Richman, B. G. Lenardo, T. Brunner, A. Fucarino, David Moore, N. Roy, L. Cao, F. Nolet, J. Todd, M. Heffner, D. Kodroff, T. Tolba, Jean-Francois Pratte, M. Oriunno, John L. Orrell, T. Daniels, B. Mong, Rejean Fontaine, Ethan Brown, Qian Wang, Y. Lan, K. Murray, G. Giacomini, T. Stiegler, O. Njoya, A. Iverson, K. Skarpaas Viii, Thomas Tsang, R. Saldanha, Shu Li, Y. Y. Ding, Z. Li, Gisela Anton, O. Zeldovich, Marc Weber, E. Hansen, A. Karelin, O. Nusair, R. Krücken, Jens Dilling, R. MacLellan, B. Chana, Giorgio Gratta, P. S. Barbeau, Yumei Zhou, I. Badhrees, R. Tsang, Martin Ward, T. I. Totev, D. Goeldi, M. Coon, Liangjian Wen, Douglas H Beck, Guofu Cao, Angelo Dragone, W. R. Cen, S. J. Daugherty, Thomas Koffas, Xiaoshan Jiang, W. M. Fairbank, M. Elbeltagi, Y-R Yen, S. Rescia, M. J. Dolinski, A. Odian, S. Parent, J. Runge, J. P. Brodsky, P. Nakarmi, U. Wichoski, S. Viel, C. Licciardi, G. Gallina, T. Rossignol, M. L. Di Vacri, L. J. Kaufman, Eric W. Hoppe, Liang Yang, A. Jamil, Arun Kumar Soma, Yuehe Lin, Samuele Sangiorgio, Wei Wei, K. S. Kumar, J. Farine, I. J. Arnquist, K. G. Leach, G. St-Hilaire, Wei Wu, R.J. Newby, P. C. Rowson, A. House, M. Tarka, G. Li, B. T. Cleveland, K. Odgers, A. Kuchenkov, M. Wagenpfeil, and C. Chambers

Subjects
Physics, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Time projection chamber, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Detector, chemistry.chemical_element, FOS: Physical sciences, Charge (physics), Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), 01 natural sciences, 030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging, Anode, Nuclear physics, 03 medical and health sciences, 0302 clinical medicine, Xenon, chemistry, Double beta decay, 0103 physical sciences, Beta (velocity), Sensitivity (control systems), Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex), Nuclear Experiment, Instrumentation, Mathematical Physics
Abstract

nEXO is a proposed experiment to search for the neutrino-less double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) of $^{136}$Xe in a tonne-scale liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC). The nEXO TPC will be equipped with charge collection tiles to form the anode. In this work, the charge reconstruction performance of this anode design is studied with a dedicated simulation package. A multi-variate method and a deep neural network are developed to distinguish simulated $0\nu\beta\beta$ signals from backgrounds arising from trace levels of natural radioactivity in the detector materials. These simulations indicate that the nEXO TPC with charge-collection tiles shows promising capability to discriminate the $0\nu\beta\beta$ signal from backgrounds. The estimated half-life sensitivity for $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay is improved by $\sim$20$~(32)\%$ with the multi-variate~(deep neural network) methods considered here, relative to the sensitivity estimated in the nEXO pre-conceptual design report.

Published
2019
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7. Reflectivity and PDE of VUV4 Hamamatsu SiPMs in Liquid Xenon

Author

Gerard Visser, M. Walent, B. G. Lenardo, T. Brunner, V. Veeraraghavan, T. Bhatta, Giorgio Gratta, F. Edaltafar, T. Rossignol, M. J. Jewell, J. Watkins, P. Nakarmi, Arun Kumar Soma, Ethan Brown, L. Darroch, O. Nusair, R. Krücken, S. X. Wu, David Leonard, J. Blatchford, E. Caden, Thomas Koffas, W. M. Fairbank, T. Stiegler, M. Elbeltagi, L. J. Kaufman, M. Hughes, X. S. Jiang, C. Licciardi, A. Craycraft, Eric W. Hoppe, S. Al Kharusi, A. Karelin, G. Gallina, P. Gautam, R. Saldanha, M. Chiu, J. L. Vuilleumier, T. Wager, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, David Moore, C. Chambers, M. Oriunno, E. V. Hansen, M. Alfaris, M. Wagenpfeil, J. Dalmasson, Sergio Ferrara, R. MacLellan, Qun-Yao Wang, K. Murray, Gabriele Giacomini, I. J. Arnquist, Liang Yang, Y. Lan, U. Wichoski, C.R. Natzke, S. Feyzbakhsh, A. Jamil, Gisela Anton, J. Runge, Zhijun Ning, T. Ziegler, K. G. Leach, R. Tsang, X.L. Sun, J. B. Zhao, M. Heffner, K. Odgers, S. Viel, Wei Wu, R.J. Newby, A. Fucarino, A. Larson, Z. Li, B. Chana, Douglas H Beck, Samuele Sangiorgio, K. S. Kumar, Veljko Radeka, P. C. Rowson, A. House, N. Massacret, Jean-Francois Pratte, P. Lv, J. Todd, Angelo Dragone, B. Mong, Y. Y. Ding, M. Ward, T. I. Totev, G. S. Li, M. L. di Vacri, R. DeVoe, C. Vivo-Vilches, Qing Xia, S. Byrne Mamahit, G. S. Ortega, R. Fontaine, J. Farine, Serge A. Charlebois, John L. Orrell, T. Daniels, V. Belov, A. Robinson, N. Roy, L. Cao, F. Nolet, T. McElroy, F. Vachon, Marc Weber, A. De St. Croix, Lorenzo Fabris, B. T. Cleveland, D. Goeldi, M. Coon, A. Kuchenkov, Cory T. Overman, S. Rescia, D. Fairbank, G. St-Hilaire, J. P. Brodsky, He-Run Yang, A. Piepke, M. Tarka, V.N. Stekhanov, J. Echevers, A. Pocar, O. Zeldovich, Yu-Guang Zhou, Liangjian Wen, Luca Doria, Guofu Cao, Thilo Michel, Wei Wei, I. Ostrovskiy, M. J. Dolinski, E. Raguzin, P. A. Breur, Xuan Wu, Mike Richman, F. Retière, O. Njoya, A. Iverson, M. Medina-Peregrina, J. Hößl, K. Skarpaas Viii, P. S. Barbeau, Thomas Tsang, Shu Li, R. Gornea, Jens Dilling, I. Badhrees, S. Parent, and A. Odian

Subjects
Materials science, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, APDS, Physics::Instrumentation and Detectors, Photodetector, chemistry.chemical_element, FOS: Physical sciences, Photodetection, 01 natural sciences, 030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging, law.invention, High Energy Physics - Experiment, 03 medical and health sciences, High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex), 0302 clinical medicine, Silicon photomultiplier, Optics, Xenon, law, 0103 physical sciences, Specular reflection, Instrumentation, Mathematical Physics, Scintillation, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, business.industry, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), Wavelength, chemistry, business
Abstract

Understanding reflective properties of materials and photodetection efficiency (PDE) of photodetectors is important for optimizing energy resolution and sensitivity of the next generation neutrinoless double beta decay, direct detection dark matter, and neutrino oscillation experiments that will use noble liquid gases, such as nEXO, DARWIN, DarkSide-20k, and DUNE. Little information is currently available about reflectivity and PDE in liquid noble gases, because such measurements are difficult to conduct in a cryogenic environment and at short enough wavelengths. Here we report a measurement of specular reflectivity and relative PDE of Hamamatsu VUV4 silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) with 50 micrometer micro-cells conducted with xenon scintillation light (~175 nm) in liquid xenon. The specular reflectivity at 15 deg. incidence of three samples of VUV4 SiPMs is found to be 30.4+/-1.4%, 28.6+/-1.3%, and 28.0+/-1.3%, respectively. The PDE at normal incidence differs by +/-8% (standard deviation) among the three devices. The angular dependence of the reflectivity and PDE was also measured for one of the SiPMs. Both the reflectivity and PDE decrease as the angle of incidence increases. This is the first measurement of an angular dependence of PDE and reflectivity of a SiPM in liquid xenon., Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables. As accepted by JINST

Published
2019
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8. VUV-sensitive Silicon Photomultipliers for Xenon Scintillation Light Detection in nEXO

Author

A. Jamil, T. Ziegler, P. Hufschmidt, G. Li, L. Lupin-Jimenez, T. Michel, I. Ostrovskiy, F. Retiere, J. Schneider, M. Wagenpfeil, A. Alamre, J. B. Albert, G. Anton, I. J. Arnquist, I. Badhrees, P. S. Barbeau, D. Beck, V. Belov, T. Bhatta, F. Bourque, J. P. Brodsky, E. Brown, T. Brunner, A. Burenkov, G. F. Cao, L. Cao, W. R. Cen, C. Chambers, S. A. Charlebois, M. Chiu, B. Cleveland, M. Coon, M. Cote, A. Craycraft, W. Cree, J. Dalmasson, T. Daniels, L. Darroch, S. J. Daugherty, J. Daughhetee, S. Delaquis, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, R. DeVoe, J. Dilling, Y. Y. Ding, M. J. Dolinski, A. Dragone, J. Echevers, L. Fabris, D. Fairbank, W. Fairbank, J. Farine, S. Feyzbakhsh, R. Fontaine, D. Fudenberg, G. Gallina, G. Giacomini, R. Gornea, G. Gratta, E. V. Hansen, D. Harris, M. Hasan, M. Heffner, J. HoBl, E. W. Hoppe, A. House, M. Hughes, Y. Ito, A. Iverson, C. Jessiman, M. J. Jewell, X. S. Jiang, A. Karelin, L. J. Kaufman, T. Koffas, S. Kravitz, R. Krucken, A. Kuchenkov, K. S. Kumar, Y. Lan, A. Larson, D. S. Leonard, S. Li, Z. Li, C. Licciardi, Y. H. Lin, P. Lv, R. MacLellan, B. Mong, D. C. Moore, K. Murray, R. J. Newby, Z. Ning, O. Njoya, F. Nolet, O. Nusair, K. Odgers, A. Odian, M. Oriunno, J. L. Orrell, G. S. Ortega, C. T. Overman, S. Parent, A. Piepke, A. Pocar, J.-F. Pratte, D. Qiu, V. Radeka, E. Raguzin, T. Rao, S. Rescia, A. Robinson, T. Rossignol, P. C. Rowson, N. Roy, R. Saldanha, S. Sangiorgio, S. Schmidt, A. Schubert, D. Sinclair, K. Skarpaas, A. K. Soma, G. St-Hilaire, V. Stekhanov, T. Stiegler, X. L. Sun, M. Tarka, J. Todd, T. Tolba, T. I. Totev, R. Tsang, T. Tsang, F. Vachon, B. Veenstra, V. Veeraraghavan, G. Visser, J.-L. Vuilleumier, Q. Wang, J. Watkins, M. Weber, W. Wei, L. J. Wen, U. Wichoski, G. Wrede, S. X. Wu, W. H. Wu, Q. Xia, L. Yang, Y.-R. Yen, O. Zeldovich, X. Zhang, J. Zhao, and Y. Zhou

Subjects
Physics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Photomultiplier, Scintillation, Time projection chamber, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, business.industry, Noble gas, chemistry.chemical_element, FOS: Physical sciences, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), Avalanche photodiode, 01 natural sciences, Optics, Silicon photomultiplier, Xenon, Nuclear Energy and Engineering, chemistry, Double beta decay, 0103 physical sciences, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 010306 general physics, business
Abstract

Future tonne-scale liquefied noble gas detectors depend on efficient light detection in the VUV range. In the past years Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) have emerged as a valid alternative to standard photomultiplier tubes or large area avalanche photodiodes. The next generation double beta decay experiment, nEXO, with a 5 tonne liquid xenon time projection chamber, will use SiPMs for detecting the $178\,\text{nm}$ xenon scintillation light, in order to achieve an energy resolution of $\sigma / Q_{\beta\beta} = 1\, \%$. This paper presents recent measurements of the VUV-HD generation SiPMs from Fondazione Bruno Kessler in two complementary setups. It includes measurements of the photon detection efficiency with gaseous xenon scintillation light in a vacuum setup and dark measurements in a dry nitrogen gas setup. We report improved photon detection efficiency at $175\,\text{nm}$ compared to previous generation devices, that would meet the criteria of nEXO. Furthermore, we present the projected nEXO detector light collection and energy resolution that could be achieved by using these SiPMs., Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables

Published
2018
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9. Sensitivity and discovery potential of the proposed nEXO experiment to neutrinoless double beta decay

Author

J. L. Vuilleumier, B. Mong, M. Wagenpfeil, J. Dalmasson, A. Piepke, J. Todd, Y. Y. Ding, M. Heffner, Yuehe Lin, John L. Orrell, E. Raguzin, X.L. Sun, J. B. Zhao, C. T. Overman, R. Krücken, D. Qiu, Z. Li, Giorgio Gratta, A. Burenkov, M. Hasan, Arun Kumar Soma, L. J. Kaufman, R. DeVoe, S. J. Daugherty, Samuele Sangiorgio, M. Hughes, K. S. Kumar, V. Veeraraghavan, Y. Lan, Wei Wei, Petr Vogel, Rejean Fontaine, J. Daughhetee, A. Craycraft, U. Wichoski, Ethan Brown, F. Bourque, M. J. Jewell, M. Coon, D. Harris, Yu-Guang Zhou, T. Ziegler, T. Tolba, G. St-Hilaire, T. Tsang, Qun-Yao Wang, T. Stiegler, M. Chiu, J. P. Brodsky, David Moore, F. Retiere, Y. Ito, J. Zettlemoyer, Douglas H Beck, M. Oriunno, Zhijun Ning, S. Johnston, O. Zeldovich, G. Visser, A. Karelin, J. Hößl, A. Pocar, R. Tsang, T. Didberidze, S. Kravitz, Guofu Cao, T. N. Johnson, J. Schneider, P. Hufschmidt, E. V. Hansen, Y-R Yen, David A. Sinclair, F. Vachon, Ryan Killick, David Leonard, K. Murray, Liang Yang, R. J. Newby, Thomas Koffas, A. Jamil, D. Fudenberg, W. M. Fairbank, Gisela Anton, M. Côté, P. C. Rowson, T. Daniels, K. Graham, G. S. Ortega, B. T. Cleveland, M. J. Dolinski, V.N. Stekhanov, K. Odgers, Angelo Dragone, A. House, S. Rescia, A. Kuchenkov, W. Cree, Jean-Francois Pratte, Veljko Radeka, T. Rossignol, S. Feyzbakhsh, R. Saldanha, S. Delaquis, T. Brunner, W. R. Cen, Serge A. Charlebois, C. Licciardi, G. S. Li, R. Gornea, K. Skarpaas, G. Wrede, I. J. Arnquist, M. Tarka, Wei Wu, X. S. Jiang, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, C. Chambers, A.C. Odian, G. Giacomini, A. Schubert, S. Parent, J. Farine, V. Belov, A. Robinson, L. Cao, F. Nolet, L. J. Wen, Marc Weber, S. X. Wu, Lorenzo Fabris, J. B. Albert, R. MacLellan, Thilo Michel, P. S. Barbeau, Jens Dilling, Xuan Zhang, I. Badhrees, I. Ostrovskiy, O. Njoya, A. Iverson, Shu Li, S. Schmidt, T. Rao, N. Roy, and E. W. Hoppe

Subjects
Physics, Time projection chamber, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Active medium, Detector, FOS: Physical sciences, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), 01 natural sciences, 7. Clean energy, 3. Good health, Nuclear physics, Homogeneous, 0103 physical sciences, Sensitivity (control systems), Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex), 010306 general physics, Enriched Xenon Observatory, Nuclear Experiment, Order of magnitude
Abstract

The next-generation Enriched Xenon Observatory (nEXO) is a proposed experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay in $^{136}$Xe with a target half-life sensitivity of approximately $10^{28}$ years using $5\times10^3$ kg of isotopically enriched liquid-xenon in a time projection chamber. This improvement of two orders of magnitude in sensitivity over current limits is obtained by a significant increase of the $^{136}$Xe mass, the monolithic and homogeneous configuration of the active medium, and the multi-parameter measurements of the interactions enabled by the time projection chamber. The detector concept and anticipated performance are presented based upon demonstrated realizable background rates., Comment: v2 as published

Published
2017

10. Characterization of an Ionization Readout Tile for nEXO

Author

T. Stiegler, Douglas H Beck, R. Tsang, K. Murray, Gisela Anton, D. Fudenberg, R. Saldanha, Angelo Dragone, J. Todd, Y. Y. Ding, R. Krücken, Jochen M. Schneider, Y-R Yen, Jean-Francois Pratte, P. C. Rowson, K. Skarpaas, S. Kravitz, E. V. Hansen, Liang Yang, S. Feyzbakhsh, A. House, V. Veeraraghavan, R. J. Newby, A. Jamil, Ethan Brown, M. Chiu, W. Cree, A. Burenkov, S. Delaquis, M. Hughes, M. Côté, T. Daniels, Gabriele Giacomini, A. Pocar, Maulik R. Patel, M. Hasan, J. Farine, A. Karelin, R. DeVoe, Jens Dilling, Arun Kumar Soma, Zhijun Ning, T. Tolba, M. J. Jewell, I. Badhrees, David Moore, A. Robinson, T. Didberidze, B. Mong, M. Wagenpfeil, J. Dalmasson, I. J. Arnquist, Xiaoshan Jiang, Yuehe Lin, Veljko Radeka, A. Piepke, Gerrit Wrede, V.N. Stekhanov, J. B. Zhao, S. Parent, U. Wichoski, M. Oriunno, W. R. Cen, C. Chambers, R. Gornea, M. Heffner, A. Odian, D. Qiu, M. Tarka, S. Johnston, T. Ziegler, I. Ostrovskiy, John L. Orrell, E. Raguzin, Z. Li, T. Brunner, S. Rescia, S. X. Wu, Eric W. Hoppe, M. Coon, S. J. Daugherty, A. Schubert, O. Zeldovich, Cory T. Overman, G. Visser, Wei Wu, O. Njoya, A. Iverson, Triveni Rao, Y. Lan, Thomas Tsang, Shu Li, S. Schmidt, J. Daughhetee, Qian Wang, David Leonard, G. S. Ortega, Thomas Koffas, W. M. Fairbank, Samuele Sangiorgio, Giorgio Gratta, J. L. Vuilleumier, B. T. Cleveland, K. Odgers, Serge A. Charlebois, R. MacLellan, Yumei Zhou, Wei Wei, K. S. Kumar, Rejean Fontaine, A. Kuchenkov, P. Hufschmidt, David A. Sinclair, F. Bourque, J. P. Brodsky, G. St-Hilaire, D. Harris, Y. Ito, L. J. Kaufman, M. J. Dolinski, A. Craycraft, Liangjian Wen, Guofu Cao, G. S. Li, Thilo Michel, T. Rossignol, Xiaoyang Sun, C. Licciardi, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, N. Roy, L. Cao, F. Nolet, F. Vachon, Marc Weber, F. Retière, J. B. Albert, X. Zhang, J. Hößl, P. S. Barbeau, V. A. Belov, and Lorenzo Fabris

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Materials science, Physics::Instrumentation and Detectors, chemistry.chemical_element, FOS: Physical sciences, STRIPS, 01 natural sciences, law.invention, Optics, Xenon, law, Ionization, 0103 physical sciences, Wafer, 010306 general physics, Instrumentation, Mathematical Physics, Time projection chamber, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, business.industry, Detector, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), Anode, chemistry, visual_art, visual_art.visual_art_medium, Tile, business
Abstract

A new design for the anode of a time projection chamber, consisting of a charge-detecting "tile", is investigated for use in large scale liquid xenon detectors. The tile is produced by depositing 60 orthogonal metal charge-collecting strips, 3~mm wide, on a 10~\si{\cm} $\times$ 10~\si{\cm} fused-silica wafer. These charge tiles may be employed by large detectors, such as the proposed tonne-scale nEXO experiment to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Modular by design, an array of tiles can cover a sizable area. The width of each strip is small compared to the size of the tile, so a Frisch grid is not required. A grid-less, tiled anode design is beneficial for an experiment such as nEXO, where a wire tensioning support structure and Frisch grid might contribute radioactive backgrounds and would have to be designed to accommodate cycling to cryogenic temperatures. The segmented anode also reduces some degeneracies in signal reconstruction that arise in large-area crossed-wire time projection chambers. A prototype tile was tested in a cell containing liquid xenon. Very good agreement is achieved between the measured ionization spectrum of a $^{207}$Bi source and simulations that include the microphysics of recombination in xenon and a detailed modeling of the electrostatic field of the detector. An energy resolution $\sigma/E$=5.5\% is observed at 570~\si{keV}, comparable to the best intrinsic ionization-only resolution reported in literature for liquid xenon at 936~V/\si{cm}., Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, as published

Published
2017
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11. Study of silicon photomultiplier performance in external electric fields

Author

A. Alamre, T. Stiegler, John L. Orrell, T. Daniels, M. Côté, J. Schneider, Z. Li, N. Roy, L. Cao, F. Nolet, M. Oriunno, M. Hughes, Ethan Brown, J. Farine, D. Fairbank, D. Qiu, Y. Ito, M. Coon, Thilo Michel, Qing Xia, V.N. Stekhanov, C. T. Overman, M. Chiu, G. S. Ortega, A. Karelin, A. Pocar, D. S. Leonard, T. Tolba, Venkatesh Veeraraghavan, J. Hößl, Marc Weber, S. Kravitz, Yuehe Lin, David Moore, Y. Lan, R. DeVoe, Serge A. Charlebois, K. Murray, A. Craycraft, J. Echevers, Gisela Anton, M. Wagenpfeil, J. Dalmasson, T. Brunner, E. Raguzin, O. Nusair, Jens Dilling, R. Krücken, Z. Ning, Samuele Sangiorgio, Wei Wei, K. S. Kumar, S. X. Wu, Gerard Visser, P. S. Barbeau, D. A. Harris, A. Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, J. B. Zhao, A. Larson, D. Fudenberg, O. Zeldovich, A. Piepke, I. Badhrees, Angelo Dragone, M. J. Jewell, F. Vachon, Rejean Fontaine, Jean-Francois Pratte, R. Saldanha, L. Darroch, D. Kodroff, B. Veenstra, F. Bourque, S. Parent, S. Rescia, Lorenzo Fabris, T. Bhatta, A. Odian, S. J. Daugherty, J. Watkins, I. Ostrovskiy, R. MacLellan, G. Giacomini, J. P. Brodsky, T. I. Totev, Stefan Schmidt, R. Tsang, O. Njoya, A. Iverson, Triveni Rao, K. Skarpaas Viii, T. Rossignol, G. Wrede, B. Mong, Thomas Tsang, Shu Li, P. Fierlinger, W. R. Cen, Liangjian Wen, Guofu Cao, L. J. Kaufman, A. E. Robinson, M. Tarka, J. B. Albert, Qian Wang, G. Li, S. Feyzbakhsh, Giorgio Gratta, Yumei Zhou, M. J. Dolinski, P. Hufschmidt, David A. Sinclair, B. T. Cleveland, K. Odgers, A. Kuchenkov, U. Wichoski, G. St-Hilaire, C. Licciardi, V. Radeka, T. Ziegler, Thomas Koffas, W. M. Fairbank, Xilei Sun, I. J. Arnquist, Wei Wu, R.J. Newby, P. C. Rowson, A. House, W. Cree, S. Delaquis, Xiaoshan Jiang, C. Chambers, G. Gallina, P. Lv, J. Todd, Y. Y. Ding, E. V. Hansen, Liang Yang, A. Jamil, Douglas H Beck, A. Burenkov, Y-R Yen, J. L. Vuilleumier, Arun Kumar Soma, C. Jessiman, M. K. Moe, Eric W. Hoppe, M. Heffner, J. Daughhetee, R. Gornea, F. Retière, and V. A. Belov

Subjects
010302 applied physics, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Materials science, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, business.industry, FOS: Physical sciences, Observable, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), 01 natural sciences, 7. Clean energy, Silicon photomultiplier, Electric field, 0103 physical sciences, Optoelectronics, business, Instrumentation, Photon detection, Mathematical Physics
Abstract

We report on the performance of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) light sensors operating in electric field strength up to 30 kV/cm and at a temperature of 149K, relative to their performance in the absence of an external electric field. The SiPM devices used in this study show stable gain, photon detection efficiency, and rates of correlated pulses, when exposed to external fields, within the estimated uncertainties. No observable physical damage to the bulk or surface of the devices was caused by the exposure., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables and two conferences (INPC2016 and TIPP2017)

Published
2018
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12. Limited effects of crop foliar Si fertilization on a marginal soil under a future climate scenario.

Author

Rineau F, Groh J, Claes J, Grosjean K, Mench M, Moreno-Druet M, Povilaitis V, Pütz T, Rutkowska B, Schröder P, Soudzilovskaia NA, Swinnen X, Szulc W, Thijs S, Vandenborght J, Vangronsveld J, Vereecken H, Verhaege K, Žydelis R, and Loit E

Abstract

Growing crops on marginal lands is a promising solution to alleviate the increasing pressure on agricultural land in Europe. Such crops will however be at the same time exposed to increased drought and pathogen prevalence, on already challenging soil conditions. Some sustainable practices, such as Silicon (Si) foliar fertilization, have been proposed to alleviate these two stress factors, but have not been tested under controlled, future climate conditions. We hypothesized that Si foliar fertilization would be beneficial for crops under future climate, and would have cascading beneficial effects on ecosystem processes, as many of them are directly dependent on plant health. We tested this hypothesis by exposing spring barley growing on marginal soil macrocosms (three with, three without Si treatment) to 2070 climate projections in an ecotron facility. Using the high-capacity monitoring of the ecotron, we estimated C, water, and N budgets of every macrocosm. Additionally, we measured crop yield, the biomass of each plant organ, and characterized bacterial communities using metabarcoding. Despite being exposed to water stress conditions, plants did not produce more biomass with the foliar Si fertilization, whatever the organ considered. Evapotranspiration (ET) was unaffected, as well as water quality and bacterial communities. However, in the 10-day period following two of the three Si applications, we measured a significant increase in C sequestration, when climate conditions where significantly drier, while ET remained the same. We interpreted these results as a less significant effect of Si treatment than expected as compared with literature, which could be explained by the high CO 2 levels under future climate, that reduces need for stomata opening, and therefore sensitivity to drought. We conclude that making marginal soils climate proof using foliar Si treatments may not be a sufficient strategy, at least in this type of nutrient-poor, dry, sandy soil., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Published
2023
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13. Macrophyte Potential to Treat Leachate Contaminated with Wood Preservatives: Plant Tolerance and Bioaccumulation Capacity.

Author

Demers E, Kõiv-Vainik M, Yavari S, Mench M, Marchand L, Vincent J, Frédette C, Comeau Y, and Brisson J

Abstract

Pentachlorophenol and chromated copper arsenate (CCA) have been used worldwide as wood preservatives, but these compounds can toxify ecosystems when they leach into the soil and water. This study aimed to evaluate the capacity of four treatment wetland macrophytes, Phalaris arundinacea , Typha angustifolia , and two subspecies of Phragmites australis , to tolerate and treat leachates containing wood preservatives. The experiment was conducted using 96 plant pots in 12 tanks filled with three leachate concentrations compared to uncontaminated water. Biomass production and bioaccumulation were measured after 35 and 70 days of exposure. There were no significant effects of leachate contamination concentration on plant biomass for any species. No contaminants were detected in aboveground parts of the macrophytes, precluding their use for phytoextraction within the tested contamination levels. However, all species accumulated As and chlorinated phenols in belowground parts, and this accumulation was more prevalent under a more concentrated leachate. Up to 0.5 mg pentachlorophenol/kg (from 81 µg/L in the leachate) and 50 mg As/kg (from 330 µg/L in the leachate) were accumulated in the belowground biomass. Given their high productivity and tolerance to the contaminants, the tested macrophytes showed phytostabilization potential and could enhance the degradation of phenols from leachates contaminated with wood preservatives in treatment wetlands.

Published
2020
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14. Phenotypic trait variation measured on European genetic trials of Fagus sylvatica L.

Author

Robson TM and Garzón MB

Subjects
Ecology, Genetic Variation, Fagus genetics, Fagus physiology
Abstract

We present BeechCOSTe52; a database of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) phenotypic measurements for several traits related to fitness measured in genetic trials planted across Europe. The dataset was compiled and harmonized during the COST-Action E52 (2006-2010), and subsequently cross-validated to ensure consistency of measurement data among trials and provenances. Phenotypic traits (height, diameter at breast height, basal diameter, mortality, phenology of spring bud burst and autumn-leaf discoloration) were recorded in 38 trial sites where 217 provenances covering the entire distribution of European beech were established in two consecutive series (1993/95 and 1996/98). The recorded data refer to 862,095 measurements of the same trees aged from 2 to 15 years old over multiple years. This dataset captures the considerable genetic and phenotypic intra-specific variation present in European beech and should be of interest to researchers from several disciplines including quantitative genetics, ecology, biogeography, macroecology, adaptive management of forests and bioeconomy.

Published
2018
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15. Morphological and functional responses of a metal-tolerant sunflower mutant line to a copper-contaminated soil series.

Author

Kolbas A, Kolbas N, Marchand L, Herzig R, and Mench M

Subjects
Chlorophyll pharmacology, Copper chemistry, Environmental Monitoring, Photosynthesis, Soil, Soil Pollutants chemistry, Copper analysis, Helianthus chemistry, Plant Leaves chemistry, Soil Pollutants analysis
Abstract

The potential use of a metal-tolerant sunflower mutant line for biomonitoring Cu phytoavailability, Cu-induced soil phytotoxicity, and Cu phytoextraction was assessed on a Cu-contaminated soil series (13-1020 mg Cu kg -1 ) obtained by fading a sandy topsoil from a wood preservation site with a similar uncontaminated soil. Morphological and functional plant responses as well as shoot, leaf, and root ionomes were measured after a 1-month pot experiment. Hypocotyl length, shoot and root dry weight (DW) yields, and leaf area gradually decreased as soil Cu exposure rose. Their dose-response curves (DRC) plotted against indicators of Cu exposure were generally well fitted by sigmoidal curves. The half-maximal effective concentration (EC 50 ) of morphological parameters ranged between 203 and 333 mg Cu kg -1 soil, corresponding to 290-430 μg Cu L -1 in the soil pore water, and 20 ± 5 mg Cu kg -1 DW in the shoots. The EC 10 for shoot Cu concentration (13-15 mg Cu kg -1 DW) coincided to 166 mg Cu kg -1 soil. Total chlorophyll content and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were early biomarkers (EC 10 : 23 and 51 mg Cu kg -1 soil). Their DRC displayed a biphasic response. Photosynthetic pigment contents, e.g., carotenoids, correlated with TAC. Ionome was changed in Cu-stressed roots, shoots, and leaves. Shoot Cu removal peaked roughly at 280 μg Cu L -1 in the soil pore water.

Published
2018
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16. Oleic Acid Uptake Reveals the Rescued Enterocyte Phenotype of Colon Cancer Caco-2 by HT29-MTX Cells in Co-Culture Mode.

Author

Berger E, Nassra M, Atgié C, Plaisancié P, and Géloën A

Subjects
Caco-2 Cells, Cell Differentiation, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Proliferation, Coculture Techniques, Colonic Neoplasms genetics, Colonic Neoplasms pathology, Databases, Genetic, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, HT29 Cells, Humans, Intestinal Mucosa metabolism, Intestinal Mucosa pathology, Transcription, Genetic, Colonic Neoplasms metabolism, Enterocytes metabolism, Oleic Acid metabolism, Phenotype
Abstract

Gastrointestinal epithelium is the unique route for nutrients and for many pharmaceuticals to enter the body. The present study aimed to analyze precisely whether co-culture of two colon cancer cell lines, mucus-producing cells HT29-MTX and enterocyte-like Caco-2 cells, ameliorate differentiation into an in vitro intestinal barrier model and the signaling pathways involved. Differentiated Caco-2 cells gene datasets were compared first to intestinal or cancer phenotypes and second to signaling pathway gene datasets. Experimental validations were performed in real-time experiments, immunochemistry, and gene expression analyses on Caco-2 versus co-cultures of Caco-2 and HT29-MTX (10%) cells. Partial maintenance of cancer-cell phenotype in differentiated Caco-2 cells was confirmed and fatty acids merged as potential regulators of cancer signaling pathways. HT29-MTX cells induced morphological changes in Caco-2 cells, slightly increased their proliferation rate and profoundly modified gene transcription of phenotype markers, fatty acid receptors, intracellular transporters, and lipid droplet components as well as functional responses to oleic acid. In vitro, enterocyte phenotype was rescued partially by co-culture of cancer cells with goblet cells and completed through oleic acid interaction with signaling pathways dysregulated in cancer cells., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Published
2017
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17. Aided phytostabilisation reduces metal toxicity, improves soil fertility and enhances microbial activity in Cu-rich mine tailings.

Author

Touceda-González M, Álvarez-López V, Prieto-Fernández Á, Rodríguez-Garrido B, Trasar-Cepeda C, Mench M, Puschenreiter M, Quintela-Sabarís C, Macías-García F, and Kidd PS

Subjects
Agrostis growth & development, Bacteria genetics, Biomass, Copper pharmacokinetics, Microbial Consortia genetics, Mining, Plant Roots chemistry, Plant Roots microbiology, Populus growth & development, Salix growth & development, Soil Pollutants analysis, Soil Pollutants pharmacokinetics, Solid Waste, Spain, Species Specificity, Biodegradation, Environmental, Copper toxicity, Soil chemistry, Soil Microbiology, Soil Pollutants toxicity
Abstract

(Aided) phytostabilisation has been proposed as a suitable technique to decrease the environmental risks associated with metal(loid)-enriched mine tailings. Field scale evaluations are needed for demonstrating their effectiveness in the medium- to long-term. A field trial was implemented in spring 2011 in Cu-rich mine tailings in the NW of Spain. The tailings were amended with composted municipal solid wastes and planted with Salix spp., Populus nigra L. or Agrostis capillaris L. cv. Highland. Plant growth, nutritive status and metal accumulation, and soil physico- and bio-chemical properties, were monitored over three years (four years for plant growth). The total bacterial community, α- and β-Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Streptomycetaceae were studied by DGGE of 16s rDNA fragments. Compost amendment improved soil properties such as pH, CEC and fertility, and decreased soil Cu availability, leading to the establishment of a healthy vegetation cover. Both compost-amendment and plant root activity stimulated soil enzyme activities and induced important shifts in the bacterial community structure over time. The woody plant, S. viminalis, and the grassy species, A. capillaris, showed the best results in terms of plant growth and biomass production. The beneficial effects of the phytostabilisation process were maintained at least three years after treatment., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Published
2017
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18. Trace element bioavailability, yield and seed quality of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) modulated by biochar incorporation into a contaminated technosol.

Author

Marchand L, Pelosi C, González-Centeno MR, Maillard A, Ourry A, Galland W, Teissedre PL, Bessoule JJ, Mongrand S, Morvan-Bertrand A, Zhang Q, Grosbellet C, Bert V, Oustrière N, Mench M, and Brunel-Muguet S

Subjects
Biological Availability, Biomass, Brassica napus drug effects, Brassica napus metabolism, Manure, Metals metabolism, Photochemistry, Soil Pollutants analysis, Ammonium Compounds toxicity, Biodegradation, Environmental, Brassica napus growth & development, Charcoal chemistry, Seeds chemistry, Soil Pollutants toxicity, Trace Elements metabolism
Abstract

Background and Aims: Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is a Cd/Zn-accumulator whereas soil conditioners such as biochars may immobilize trace elements. These potentially complementary soil remediation options were trialed, singly and in combination, in a pot experiment with a metal(loid)-contaminated technosol., Methods: The technosol [total content in mg kg(-1) Zn 6089, Cd 9.4, Cu 110, and Pb 956] was either amended (2% w/w) or not with a poultry manure-derived biochar. Rapeseed was cultivated for both soil treatments during 24 weeks up to harvest under controlled conditions., Results: Biochar incorporation into the technosol promoted the As, Cd, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb and Zn solubility. It decreased foliar B, Cu and Mo concentrations, and Mo concentration in stems, pericarps and seeds. But, it did not impact neither the biomass of aerial rapeseed parts (except a decrease for seeds), nor their C (except a decrease for stems), seed fatty acid, seed starch and soluble sugar contents, and antioxidant capacity in both leaves and seeds. Biochar amendment increased the phytoextraction by aerial plant parts for K, P, and S, reduced it for N, Ca, B, Mo, Ni and Se, whereas it remained steady for Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu, Cd and Co., Conclusions: The biochar incorporation into this technosol did not promote Cd, Cu and Zn phytoextraction by rapeseed and its potential oilseed production, but increased the solubility of several metal(loid)s. Here Zn and Cd concentrations in the soil pore water were decreased by rapeseed, showing the feasibility to strip available soil Zn and Cd in combination with seed production., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Published
2016
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19. Aided phytoextraction of Cu, Pb, Zn, and As in copper-contaminated soils with tobacco and sunflower in crop rotation: Mobility and phytoavailability assessment.

Author

Hattab-Hambli N, Motelica-Heino M, and Mench M

Subjects
Biodegradation, Environmental, Biomass, Copper analysis, France, Helianthus metabolism, Lead analysis, Plant Shoots growth & development, Plant Shoots metabolism, Soil chemistry, Soil Pollutants analysis, Nicotiana metabolism, Zinc analysis, Copper metabolism, Helianthus growth & development, Lead metabolism, Soil Pollutants metabolism, Nicotiana growth & development, Zinc metabolism
Abstract

Copper-contaminated soils were managed with aided phytoextraction in 31 field plots at a former wood preservation site, using a single incorporation of compost (OM) and dolomitic limestone (DL) followed by a crop rotation with tobacco and sunflower. Six amended plots, with increasing total soil Cu, and one unamended plot were selected together with a control uncontaminated plot. The mobility and phytoavailability of Cu, Zn, Cr and As were investigated after 2 and 3 years in soil samples collected in these eight plots. Total Cu, Zn, Cr and As concentrations were determined in the soil pore water (SPW) and available soil Cu and Zn fractions by DGT. The Cu, Zn, Cr and As phytoavailability was characterized by growing dwarf beans on potted soils and determining the biomass of their plant parts and their foliar ionome. Total Cu concentrations in the SPW increased with total soil Cu. Total Cu, Zn, Cr and As concentrations in the SPW decreased in year 3 as compared to year 2, likely due to annual shoot removals by the plants and the lixiviation. Available soil Cu and Zn fractions also declined in year 3. The Cu, Zn, Cr and As phytoavailability, assessed by their concentration and mineral mass in the primary leaves of beans, was reduced in year 3., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Published
2016
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