The PandaX project consists of a series of xenon-based experiments that are used to search for dark matter (DM) particles and to study the fundamental properties of neutrinos. The next DM experiment PandaX-4T will be using 4 ton liquid xenon in the sensitive volume, which is nearly a factor of seven larger than that of the previous experiment PandaX-II. Due to the increasing target mass, the sensitivity of searching for both DM and neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0νββ$) signals in the same detector will be significantly improved. However, the typical energy of interest for $0νββ$ signals is at the MeV scale, which is much higher than that of most popular DM signals. In the baseline readout scheme of the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), the dynamic range is very limited. Signals from the majority of PMTs in the top array of the detector are heavily saturated at MeV energies. This deteriorates the $0νββ$ search sensitivity. In this paper we report a new design of the readout base board of the PMTs for future PandaX DM experiments and present its improved performance on the dynamic range.
We report the long term performance of the photosensors, 143 one-inch R8520-406 and 37 three-inch R11410-MOD photomultipliers from Hamamatsu, in the first phase of the PandaX dual-phase xenon dark matter experiment. This is the first time that a significant number of R11410 photomultiplier tubes were operated in liquid xenon for an extended period, providing important guidance to the future large xenon-based dark matter experiments.
PandaX-II experiment is a dark matter direct detection experiment using about half-ton of liquid xenon as the sensitive target. The electrical pulses detected by photomultiplier tubes from scintillation photons of xenon are recorded by waveform digitizers. The data acquisition of Pandax-II relies on a trigger system that generates common trigger signals for all waveform digitizers. Previously an analog device-based trigger system was used for the data acquisition system. In this paper we present a new FPGA-based trigger system. The design of this system and trigger algorithms are described. Th…
PandaX-4T is a dark matter direct detection experiment located in China jinping underground laboratory. The central apparatus is a dual-phase xenon detector containing 4 ton liquid xenon in the sensitive volume, with about 500 photomultipliers instrumented in the top and the bottom of the detector. In this paper we present a completely new system of readout electronics and data acquisition in the PandaX-4T experiment. Compared to the one used in the previous PandaX dark matter experiments, the new system features triggerless readout and higher bandwidth. With triggerless readout, dark matter s…
Waveform digitizers are key readout instruments in particle physics experiments. In this paper, we present a waveform digitizer for the PandaX dark matter experiments. It supports both external-trigger readout and triggerless readout, accommodating the needs of low rate full-waveform readout and channel-independent low threshold acquisition, respectively. This digitizer is a 8-channel VME board with a sampling rate of 500 MS/s and 14-bit resolution for each channel. A digitizer system consisting of 72 channels has been tested in situ of the PandaX-4T experiment. We report the system performanc…
The event plane detector (EPD), installed in the Solenoid Tracker at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider located at the Brookhaven National Laboratory is a plastic scintillator-based device that measures the reaction centrality and event plane in the forward region of the relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We used silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays to detect the photons produced in the scintillator via the fiber connection. Signals from the SiPM arrays were amplified by the front-end electronic (FEE) board, and sent to the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) boards for further processing via …
Dual-phase noble-gas time projection chambers (TPCs) have improved the sensitivities for dark matter direct search in past decades. The capability of TPCs to reconstruct 3-D vertexes of keV scale recoilings is one of the most advantageous features. In this work, we develop two horizontal position reconstruction algorithms for the PandaX-II dark matter search experiment using the dual-phase liquid xenon TPC. Both algorithms are optimized by the $^{83m}$Kr calibration events and use photon distribution of ionization signals among photomultiplier tubes to infer the positions. According to the eve…
In many physical experiments and applications with photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), high-speed pulse digitalization is used extensively. The current pulse from a PMT has a rising time of several to a hundred nanoseconds. The current pulse shape can be used to obtain the pulse energy and discriminate between different particles. The conventional readout system with a PMT uses the discrete or integrated pulse-shaping circuits and analogue-to-digital converter boards which are based on the NIM or VME system to implement the data acquisition function. In many applications, such as security instrument…
The performance of scintillator counters with embedded wavelength-shifting fibers has been measured in the Fermilab Meson Test Beam Facility using 120 GeV protons. The counters were extruded with a titanium dioxide surface coating and two channels for fibers at the Fermilab NICADD facility. Each fiber end is read out by a 2*2 mm^2 silicon photomultiplier. The signals were amplified and digitized by a custom-made front-end electronics board. Combinations of 5*2 cm^2 and 6*2 cm^2 extrusion profiles with 1.4 and 1.8 mm diameter fibers were tested. The design is intended for the cosmic-ray veto de…
The Particle And Astrophysical Xenon Experiment III (PandaX-III) is an experiment to search for the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (NLDBD) using 200 kg radio-pure high-pressure gaseous xenon TPC with Micromegas detectors at both ends and cathode in the middle. A small-scale TPC equipped with 7 Microbulk Micromegas detectors is developed as the prototype detector. 128 channels are readout following an X-Y design with strips of 3 mm pitch (64 channels each direction) from one Micromegas module. Highly integrated front-end electronics composed of 4 front-end cards with 1024 readout channels is de…
The JUNO observatory is a medium baseline experiment in construction in China. A large liquid scintillator volume detects the antineutrinos issued from nuclear reactors. The liquid scintillator detector is instrumented with 17000 large photomultiplier tubes. Two veto systems are added to reduce the backgrounds. The front-end electronics system performs analog signal processing (the underwater electronics) and after about 100 m cables, the back-end electronics system, outside water, consists of the DAQ and the trigger. One of the main challenges of the whole electronics system is the fast data …
The KM3NeT neutrino telescope will be composed of many optical modules, each of them containing 31 (3") photomultipliers, connected to a Central Logic Board. The Central Logic Board integrates Time to Digital Converters that measure Time Over Threshold of the photomulti- pliers signals while White Rabbit is used for the optical modules time synchronization. Auxiliary boards have also been designed and built in order to test and extend the performance of the Cen- tral Logic Board. The Central Logic Board, as well as the auxiliary boards, will be presented by focusing on the design consideration…
The Mu2e calorimeter will employ Readout Units, each made of two Silicon Photomultipliers arrays and two Front End Electronics boards. To calibrate them, we have designed, assembled and put in operation an automated Quality Control (QC) station. Gain, collected charge and photon detection efficiency are evaluated for each unit. In this paper, the QC Station is presented, in its hardware and software aspects, summarizing also the tests performed on the ROUs and the first measurement results.
The PADME experiment, hosted at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati in Italy, is dedicated to the dark photon search. It looks for the reaction $e^{+}\,e^{-}\rightarrow A'\,γ$, where $A'$ indicates the dark photon. The $550\,\text{MeV}$ positrons beam that impinges on electrons, coming from an active diamond target, allows to scan $A'$ masses up to $23.7\,\text{MeV}$. In this context, the segmented electromagnetic calorimeter plays a fundamental role, since it measures the final photon four-momentum. It consists of $616$ BGO crystals displaced in a cylindrical shape of $\approx29\,\text{cm}$ …
University of California, Santa Barbara（加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校）；Korea University（高丽大学）；Columbia University（哥伦比亚大学）；CERN（欧洲核子研究组织）；New York University（纽约大学）；The Ohio State University（俄亥俄州立大学）；Boston University（波士顿大学）
We have developed a custom amplifier board coupled to a large-format 16-channel Hamamatsu silicon photomultiplier device for use as the light sensor for the electromagnetic calorimeters in the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab. The calorimeter absorber is an array of lead-fluoride crystals, which produces short-duration Cherenkov light. The detector sits in the high magnetic field of the muon storage ring. The SiPMs selected, and their accompanying custom electronics, must preserve the short pulse shape, have high quantum efficiency, be non-magnetic, exhibit gain stability under varying rate con…
The Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon Time-Projection Chamber (NEXT) is intended to investigate the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe, which requires a severe suppression of potential backgrounds; therefore, an extensive screening and selection process is underway to control the radiopurity levels of the materials to be used in the experimental set-up of NEXT. The detector design combines the measurement of the topological signature of the event for background discrimination with the energy resolution optimization. Separate energy and tracking readout planes are based on different sensors…
The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is one detector of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). TileCal is a sampling calorimeter made of steel plates and plastic scintillators which are readout using approximately 10,000 PhotoMultipliers Tubes (PMTs). In 2024, the LHC will undergo a series of upgrades towards a High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) to deliver up to 7.5 times the current nominal instantaneous luminosity. The ATLAS Tile Phase II Upgrade will accommodate detector and Data AcQuisition (DAQ) system to the HL-LHC requirements. The detector electronics will be redesigned using a n…
Embedded underwater front-end electronics for the 3-inch photomultipliers in the JUNO experiment
Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, LP2I（波尔多大学）；Institute of High Energy Physics（高能物理研究所）；Millennium Institute for SubAtomic Physics at the High-energy Frontier (SAPHIR), ANID（前沿高能子原子物理学千年研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine（加州大学尔湾分校物理与天文学系）；IPHC, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS/IN2P3（斯特拉斯堡大学）；Sun Yat-Sen University（中山大学）；The University of Liverpool（利物浦大学）；INFN Catania and Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia dell Università di Catania（卡塔尼亚大学）；Joint Institute for Nuclear Research（联合核研究所）
In this Technical Design Report (TDR) we describe the NEXT-100 detector that will search for neutrinoless double beta decay (bbonu) in Xe-136 at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC), in Spain. The document formalizes the design presented in our Conceptual Design Report (CDR): an electroluminescence time projection chamber, with separate readout planes for calorimetry and tracking, located, respectively, behind cathode and anode. The detector is designed to hold a maximum of about 150 kg of xenon at 15 bar, or 100 kg at 10 bar. This option builds in the capability to increase the total…
We propose the continuation of the MEG experiment to search for the charged lepton flavour violating decay (cLFV) μ\to e γ, based on an upgrade of the experiment, which aims for a sensitivity enhancement of one order of magnitude compared to the final MEG result, down to the $6 \times 10^{-14}$ level. The key features of this new MEG upgrade are an increased rate capability of all detectors to enable running at the intensity frontier and improved energy, angular and timing resolutions, for both the positron and photon arms of the detector. On the positron-side a new low-mass, single volume, hi…
