A large area Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) with a total active surface of 160x10 cm2 was built and tested. The surface was segmented in two 5 cm wide strips readout on both ends with custom, very high frequency, front end electronics.
A timing resolution between 50 and 75 ps sigma with an efficiency for Minimum Ionizing Particles (MIPs) larger than 95% was attained over the whole active area, in addition with a position resolution along the strips of 1.2 cm.
Despite the large active area per electronic channel, the observed timing resolution is remarkably close to the one previously obtained (50 ps sigma) with much smaller chambers of about 10 cm2 area. These results open perspectives of extending the application of timing RPCs to large area arrays exposed to moderate particle multiplicities, where the low cost, good time resolution, insensitivity to the magnetic field and compact mechanics may be attractive when compared with the standard scintillator-based Time-of-Flight (TOF) technology.
This communication describes test beam results, focusing on detection efficiency and timing precision, of common float glass timing Resistive Plate Chambers (tRPCs) exposed to a $2.7$~GeV proton beam and operated at above ambient temperature in order to increase the count rate capability of the chambers, by exploiting the reduction in the resistivity of the glass electrodes. Results suggest that the count rate capability can be extended at least up to $1500~Hz/cm^2$ when the detector is operated at $40.6^{\circ}$C without noticeable loss of efficiency or timing precision degradation with value…
A detailed numerical simulation has been performed to investigate the timing properties of a standard RPC geometry in order to optimize its application in INO-ICAL experiment designed for studying atmospheric neutrinos. The timing information provided by the RPC is an important observable in the experiment to determine the direction of the neutrinos. Effects of various operating conditions and design components on the RPC timing response, mainly the average signal arrival time and the time resolution have been studied in this context. The dependence of the detector efficiency on the same param…
Numerical calculations have been performed to understand the reason for the observed non-uniform response of a Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) in a few critical regions such as near edge spacers and corners of the device. In this context, the signal from a RPC due to the passage of muons through different regions has been computed. Also, a simulation of RPC timing properties is presented along with the effect of the applied field, gas mixture and geometrical components.
For precise start time determination a Beam Fragmentation T$_0$ Counter (BFTC) is under development for the Time-of-Flight Wall of the Compressed Baryonic Matter Spectrometer (CBM) at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at Darmstadt/Germany. This detector will be located around the beam pipe, covering the front area of the Projectile Spectator Detector. The fluxes at this region are expected to exceed 10$^5$cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$. Resistive plate chambers (RPC) with ceramic composite electrodes could be use because of their high rate capabilities and radiation hardness of material. …
The time resolution for several single gap (2 mm) prototype Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) made of high resistive (bulk resistivity ~ 10^10 - 10^12 ohm cm), 2 mm thick matt finished bakelite paper laminates with silicone coating on the inner surfaces, has been measured. The time resolution for all the modules has been found to be ~ 2 ns at the plateau region.
The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is a project aimed at building a large underground laboratory to explore the Earth's mater effects on the atmospheric neutrinos in multi-GeV range. INO will host a 50 kton magnetized iron calorimeter detector (ICAL) in which Resistive Plate Chambers(RPCs) will be the active detector elements. In ICAL, 28,800 glass RPCs of 2 m $\times$ 2 m size will be operated in the avalanche mode. A small variation in the compositions of ionizing gaseous medium in the RPC affects its performance. Study of the charge distribution of the RPC at different gas compositi…
The reduction of the average charge per count in the gas along with the capability to discriminate very small signals from noise can allow an efficient and long-term Resistive Plate Chamber detector operation in high radiation background environment. This goal has been reached during the R&D program of the BIS78 upgrade project of the ATLAS detector at LHC through the deep integration of a fast (100 ps peaking time) and sensitive (as small as 100 `V threshold) Front- End electronics (FE) with a very large size detector structure. This innovative RPC integration concept pivots on a newly concei…
We have systematically studied the transmission of electrical signals along several 2-strip Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) in the frequency range $f=0.1-3.5$GHz. Such a range was chosen to fully cover the bandwidth associated to the very short rise-times of signals originated in RPCs used for sub-100ps timing applications. This work conveys experimental evidence of the dominant role of modal dispersion in counters built at the 1 meter scale, a fact that results in large cross-talk levels and strong signal shaping. It is shown that modal dispersion appears in RPCs due to the intrinsic unbalanc…
The HL-LHC phase is designed to increase by an order of magnitude the amount of data to be collected by the LHC experiments. To achieve this goal in a reasonable time scale the instantaneous luminosity would also increase by an order of magnitude up to $6 \cdot 10^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$. The region of the forward muon spectrometer ($|η| > 1.6$) is not equipped with RPC stations. The increase of the expected particles rate up to 2 kHz/cm$^2$ ( including a safety factor 3 ) motivates the installation of RPC chambers to guarantee redundancy with the CSC chambers already present. The actual RPC t…
During Phase-2 of the LHC, known as the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), the accelerator will increase its instantaneous luminosity to 5 $\times$ 10$^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, delivering an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$ over 10 years of operation starting from 2027. In view of the HL-LHC, the CMS muon system will be upgraded to sustain efficient muon triggering and reconstruction performance. Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) serve as dedicated detectors for muon triggering due to their excellent timing resolution, and will extend $|η|$ (pseudorapidity) up to a region of 2.4. Before Long …
Large Resistive Plate Chamber systems have their roots in High Energy Physics experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research: ATLAS, CMS and ALICE, where hundreds of square meters of both trigger and timing RPCs have been deployed. These devices operate with complex gas systems, equipped with re-circulation and purification units, which require a fresh gas supply of the order of 6 cm$^{3}$/min/m$^{2}$, creating logistical, technical and financial problems. In this communication, we present a new concept in the construction of RPCs which allowed us to operate a detector at ultra-…
We constructed a new time-of-flight (TOF) detector consisting of resistive plate chambers (RPCs) to measure particle energy in the BGOegg experiment. The BGOegg-RPC has a unique feature which enables us to cover a large area with a small number of readout channels. For this purpose, we developed the RPC with a strip size of 2.5 cm $\times$ 100 cm. The BGOegg-RPC covers an area of 320 cm $\times$ 200 cm with only 256 channels of readout electronics. In case of large readout RPCs, an originated signal is distorted and dispersed during propagation. In addition, there happens a signal reflection a…
A muon telescope equipped with four Resistive Plate Chambers of 2 m$^{2}$ per plane was tested with the muon scattering tomography technique. The telescope was operated during several hours with high atomic number materials located at its center with two detector planes on each side. With an intrinsic efficiency above 98%, spatial resolution around 1 cm and detector planes spaced by 45 cm, it was possible to identify the presence of a 5 cm thick tungsten block in 10 minutes of acquisition. The results obtained after five hours of acquisition are also presented in this communication.
Resistive plate chambers (RPC) lined with $^{10}B_{4}$C neutron converters is a promising cost effective technology for position-sensitive thermal neutron detection capable to outperform $^{3}$He-based detectors in terms of spatial resolution and timing. However, as for the other types of gaseous detectors with a single layer of $^{10}B_{4}$C at normal beam incidence, the detection efficiency to thermal neutrons of a single-gap $^{10}B$-RPC is only about 6%. Aiming to overcome this limitation, we introduce a multi-layer $^{10}B$-RPCs detector with a stack of ten double-gap hybrid RPCs. A descr…
Optimization of spacer and gas distribution inside glass resistive plate chamber (RPC) is reported. Simulation studies demonstrate improvements on the gas flow velocity homogeneity and lower vorticity inside the gas chamber. The optimized spacer configuration (76 spacers) decreases the number of spacers by $24\%$ compared to the original design (100 spacers), thus helps significantly reduce the non-active or low-efficiency area caused by spacers while maintaining similar deformation uniformity of the electrodes. Large area glass RPCs with 1x1 m$^2$ size using two types of spacer configurations…
We have developed multi-gap resistive plate chambers (MRPCs) with 2.5 x 200 cm2 readout strips for the time-of-flight (TOF) detector system of the LEPS2 experiment at SPring-8. These chambers consist of 2 stacks and 5 gas gaps per stack, in a mirrored configuration. A time resolution of sigma ~ 80 ps was achieved for any position within a strip (at above 99% detection efficiency); after performing the time-charge slewing correction, this value could be reduced to 60 ps. A link between the small contribution of the slewing correction to timing and the suppression of modal dispersion in the dete…
The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) are low-cost charged-particle detectors with good timing resolution and potentially good spatial resolution. Using RPC as gamma detector provides an opportunity for application in positron emission tomography (PET). In this work, we use GEANT4 simulation package to study various methods improving the detection efficiency of a realistic RPC-based PET model for 511keV photons, by adding more detection units, changing the thickness of each layer, choosing different converters and using multi-gaps RPC (MRPC) technique. Proper balance among these factors are discu…
The Resistive Plate Chamber is a widely used detector in high energy physics. The operating potential of this chamber is determined by the optimisation of the efficiency and noise rate of the device. This optimisation is based on the assumption that the performance of the device over the whole surface area is uniform. The INO-ICAL experiment is going to use $\sim$ 30000 RPC of size $\sim$2\,m$\times$2\,m. All the RPC will have to pass a minimum quality assurance criteria, but may not be able to maintain a good uniformity over the whole surface area, particularly for the whole running period of…
The HL-LHC phase is designed to increase by an order of magnitude the amount of data to be collected by the LHC experiments. To achieve this goal in a reasonable time scale the instantaneous luminosity would also increase by an order of magnitude up to $6.10^{34} cm^{-2} s^{-1}$ . The region of the forward muon spectrometer ($|η| > 1.6$) is not equipped with RPC stations. The increase of the expected particles rate up to $2 kHz/cm^{2}$ (including a safety factor 3) motivates the installation of RPC chambers to guarantee redundancy with the CSC chambers already present. The actual RPC technolog…
In this work we describe some recent results concerning the application of Resistive Plate Chambers operated in avalanche mode at atmospheric pressure for high-resolution time-of-flight measurements. A combination of multiple, mechanically accurate, thin gas gaps and state-of-the-art electronics yielded an overall (detector plus electronics) timing accuracy better than 50 ps sigma with a detection efficiency up to 99% for MIPs. Single gap chambers were also tested in order to clarify experimentally several aspects of the mode of operation of these detectors. These results open perspectives of …
The present paper is meant as an update of the presentation given in a previous Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) workshop, aimed at finding an eco-friendly gas mixture for streamer operation of RPCs. Indeed the streamer working regime is still suitable for building large RPC systems dedicated to low rate applications, such as cosmic ray and neutrino physics. In addition to other studies about gas mixtures for streamer mode operation, in this paper the replacement of R134a with CF4, a gas widely used in other gaseous detectors, has been investigated. The effect of the gas gap thickness on the disc…
Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) is a gaseous detector, known for its good spatial resolution and excellent time resolution. Due to its fast response and excellent time resolution, it is used for both triggering and timing purpose. But the time resolution of RPC is dependent on the detector geometry, applied voltage and the gas mixture used for detector operation. In this work, we have tried to develop a numerical model to estimate the time resolution of the detector. The model is developed using COMSOL Multiphysics, a commercially available finite element method solver. Using the primary ionizat…
The 50~kton Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the underground India based Neutrino Observatory (INO) will make measurements on atmospheric neutrinos. Muons produced in charged current (CC) interactions of muon neutrinos with the iron are tracked spatially and temporally through the signals that they produce in the Resistive Plate Chambers~(RPCs) that are interleaved with iron layers. Since the RPCs will be operated in the avalanche mode the signal rise-time is $\sim~1~\rm{nsec}$ resulting in a fast time response. While the muon track is derived from the X and Y hit information of the RPCs an…
Monte-Carlo simulation of physical processes is an important tool for detector development as it allows to predict signal pulse amplitude and timing, time resolution, efficiency ... Yet despite the fact they are very common, full simulations for RPC-like detector are not widespread and often incomplete. They are often based on mathematical distributions that are not suited for this particular modelisation and over-simplify or neglect some important physical processes. We describe the main physical processes occurring inside a RPC when a charged particle goes through (ionisation, electron drift…
We report on studies of fast triggering and high-precision tracking using Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs). Two beam tests were carried out with the 180 GeV muon beam at CERN using RPCs with gas gaps of 1.00 or 1.15 mm and equipped with readout strips with 1.27 mm pitch. This is the first beam test of RPCs with fine-pitch readout strips that explores simultaneously precision tracking and triggering capabilities. RPC signals were acquired with precision timing and charge integrating readout electronics at both ends of the strips. The time resolution was measured to be better than 600 ps and the …
This work reports a cost-effective, multi-parameter readout and data-acquisition system for a muon scattering tomography system based on Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs). Initial test measurements with a prototype Resistive Plate Chamber were performed using a low-cost FPGA coupled to the NINO ASIC for the event selection and handling data. The Time over-Threshold (TOT) property of NINO ASICs has been used to achieve better position information and achieve precise tracking capability. In our test setup, we try to build an imaging setup using a single RPC and lead block, which covers some areas …
Here we report on a particular type of RPC that presents up to 99% efficiency for minimum ionizing particles and a very sharp time resolution, below 50 ps sigma in the most optimized conditions. Our 9 cm2 cells, made with glass and metal electrodes that form accurately spaced gaps of a few hundred micrometers, are operated at atmospheric pressure in non-flammable gases and can be economically produced in large quantities, opening perspectives for the construction of large area time of flight systems.
The India based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is a mega science project of India, which is going to use near about 30, 000 Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) as active detector elements for the study of atmospheric neutrino oscillations. Each RPC detector will consist of two orthogonally placed readout strips panel for picking the signals generated in the gas chamber. The area of RPC detector in INO-ICAL (Iron Calorimeter) experiment will be 2m x 2m, therefore the dimension of readout strips panel will also be of 2m x 2m. To get undistorted signals pass through the readout strips panel to frontend el…
The high pseudo-rapidity region of the CMS muon system is covered by Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC) only and lacks redundant coverage despite the fact that it is a challenging region for muons in terms of backgrounds and momentum resolution. In order to maintain good efficiency for the muon trigger in this region additional RPCs are planned to be installed in the two outermost stations at low angle named RE3/1 and RE4/1. These stations will use RPCs with finer granularity and good timing resolution to mitigate background effects and to increase the redundancy of the system.
Using scintillator tile technology several square meters of plastic scintillator are read out by only two photomultiplier with a time precision of about 1.5 nsec. Two examples are discussed to build a detector based on this technology to search for cosmic muons and neutrinos.
In this study an array of eight 6 mm x 6 mm area SiPMs was coupled to the end of a long plastic scintillator counter which was exposed to a 2.5 GeV/c muon beam at the CERN PS. Timing characteristics of bars with dimensions 150 cm x 6 cm x 1 cm and 120 cm x 11 cm x 2.5 cm have been studied. An 8-channel SiPM anode readout ASIC (MUSIC R1) based on a novel low input impedance current conveyor has been used to read out and amplify SiPMs independently and sum the signals at the end. Prospects for applications in large-scale particle physics detectors with timing resolution below 100 ps are provided…
Imaging techniques that use atmospheric muons, collectively named under the neologism "muography", have seen a tremendous growth in recent times, mainly due to their diverse range of applications. The most well-known ones include but are not limited to: volcanology, archaeology, civil engineering, nuclear reactor monitoring, nuclear waste characterization, underground mapping, etc. These methods are based on the attenuation or deviation of muons to image large and/or dense objects where conventional techniques cannot work or their use becomes challenging. In this context, we have constructed a…
Resistive Plate Chamber Detector Construction and Certification: State-of-the-Art Facilities at the Max Planck Institute for Physics, in Partnership with Industrial Partners
The Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) muon subsystem contributes significantly to the formation of the trigger decision and reconstruction of the muon trajectory parameters. Simulation of the RPC response is a crucial part of the entire CMS Monte Carlo software and directly influences the final physical results. An algorithm based on the parametrization of RPC efficiency, noise, cluster size and timing for every strip has been developed. Experimental data obtained from cosmic and proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV have been used for determination of the parameters. A dedicated validation…
Timing performance of large prototype based on $\upmu$RWELL- PICOSEC detector technology with $10 \times 10\ \mathrm{cm}^{2}$ active area
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)（欧洲核子研究中心）；Aristotle University of Thessaloniki（塞萨洛尼基亚里士多德大学）；Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI-AUTH)（跨学科研究与创新中心）；Institut de Recherche sur les lois Fondamentales de l’Univers (IRFU, CEA)（基础定律宇宙研究所）；Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich（慕尼黑路德维希-马克西米利安大学）
Compact X-rays detectors made of 1/2" or 1" :LaBr3:Ce crystals of cubic shape with SiPM array readout have been developed for the FAMU experiment at RIKEN-RAL. The aim is a precise measurement of the proton Zemach radius with incoming muons. Additional applications may be found in medical physics, such as PET, homeland security and gamma-ray astronomy. Due to the high photon yield of LaBr3:Ce it was possible to use a simple readout scheme based on CAEN V1730 digitizers. Detectors, using Hamamatsu S13361 or S14161 arrays, have good FWHM energy resolutions up to 3 % (8 %) at the Cs137 Co57) peak…
Development of a high-granularity, high-precision timing readout electronics system for large-area MRPC detectors
Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院核粒子物理研究所）；Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (MoE), Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology（教育部粒子天体物理与宇宙学重点实验室，上海粒子物理与宇宙学重点实验室）；Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon, Lyon University（里昂大学里昂双无限物理研究所）；Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所）
本研究针对含2400个2*2 cm pad通道的大面积MRPC探测器，研发了由FEBs、时钟模块、DAQ聚合器及PETIROC2B ASIC组成的高粒度高精度定时读出系统，其单通道时间分辨率达33 ps RMS，可应用于多种定时探测器场景。
A silicon 3D detector with a single cell of 50x50 um2 was produced and evaluated for timing applications. The measurements of time resolution were performed for 90Sr electrons with dedicated electronics used also for determining time resolution of Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGADs). The measurements were compared to those with LGADs and also simulations. The studies showed that the dominant contribution to the timing resolution comes from the time walk originating from different induced current shapes for hits over the cell area. This contribution decreases with higher bias voltages, lower t…
Micro-channel plate (MCP)-based photodetectors are capable of picosecond level time resolution and sub-mm level position resolution, which makes them a perfect candidate for the next generation large area photodetectors. The large-area picosecond photodetector (LAPPD) collaboration is developing new techniques for making large-area photodetectors based on new MCP fabrication and functionalization methods. A small single tube processing system (SmSTPS) was constructed at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) for developing scalable, cost-effective, glass-body, 6 cm x 6 cm, picosecond photodetectors…
Recent interest in pile-up mitigation through fast timing at the HL-LHC has focused attention on technologies that now achieve minimum ionising particle (MIP) time resolution of 30 picoseconds or less. The constraints of technical maturity and radiation tolerance narrowed the options in this rapidly developing field for the ATLAS and CMS upgrades to low gain avalanche detectors and silicon photomultipliers. In a variety of applications where occupancies and doses are lower, devices with pixel elements of order 1 cm$^2$, nevertheless achieving 30 ps, would be attractive. In this paper, deep dif…
The characterization of spacial and timing resolution of the novel Trench Isolated LGAD (TI-LGAD) technology is presented. This technology has been developed at FBK with the goal of achieving 4D pixels, where an accurate position resolution is combined in a single device with the precise timing determination for Minimum Ionizing Particles (MIPs). In the TI-LGAD technology, the pixelated LGAD pads are separated by physical trenches etched in the silicon. This technology can reduce the interpixel dead area, mitigating the fill factor problem. The TI-RD50 production studied in this work is the fi…
Many characteristics of Silicon Photomultipliers can be tuned with temperature and operation voltage. We present preliminary results of a study of the effect of these two operation parameters on the time resolution of large active area Multi-Pixel Photon Counters (MPPCs) manufactured by Hamamatsu. Measurements at -10 C, 0 C, and 10 C at different bias voltages were performed. The time resolution is best at low temperature and high over-voltage. Most significant improvements can be achieved in cases with low number of fired pixels (<10 pixels). Between the worst and best case among the consider…
