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Physics Physics Instrumentation and Detectors

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Friday 21 August

Instrumentation and Detectors

Precise Modeling of a Complex Solenoidal Magnetic Field Using a Combination of Analytic Functions and a PINN

We demonstrate an iterative approach to modeling a sparsely measured magnetic field in a large-bore solenoid. This approach uses a hybrid of traditional and machine learning techniques. The traditional technique is a linear least-squares fit using a series solution to Laplace's equation, while the machine learning technique involves the training of a physics-informed neural network (PINN) on the least-squares fit residuals. We use a newly defined activation function "DELTAsnake," a modification to the snake activation function proposed by Ziyin et al. that allows for stronger curvature and non-monotonicity. The combined model approximately obeys Maxwell's equations to a level sufficient for producing high quality physics simulations and analysis. Our approach is applied to a highly realistic calculation of the expected magnetic field in the Mu2e experiment's Detector Solenoid which includes a simple model for the expected statistical measurement uncertainties. Using ten toy measurement simulations, we demonstrate the capabilities of our model in comparison to the least-squares method alone; the least-squares method alone results in a reduced chi-squared statistic of ${2.15 \pm 0.01}$, while our approach improves the reduced chi-square to ${1.034 \pm 0.005}$. Furthermore, for an average toy simulation, we show that the range of the RMS of the three field component residuals reduces from ${0.07-0.37}$ Gauss to ${0.05-0.07}$ Gauss. We find that this novel method is robust against a realistic systematic uncertainty deriving from Hall probe calibration bias and can be used to significantly reduce the number of measurements required to achieve an accurate model.
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All authors Cole Kampa, Susan Dittmer, Henry Glass, Michael Schmitt

Instrumentation and Detectors

Reconstructing High-Fidelity Light Yield Maps for Surface LArTPCs Using Crossing Cosmic Muons

Photon detection systems in liquid argon time projection chambers provide prompt scintillation light information that can improve triggering, timing, calorimetry, and interaction reconstruction. These applications require an understanding of the spatial dependence of the detected light yield (LY), which is not adequately described by a single detector-wide average. We present a method for reconstructing voxelized 3D light yield maps in surface LArTPCs using crossing cosmic muons. For each selected muon, the path length through every crossed voxel is converted to deposited energy using a minimum ionizing particle approximation, producing a linear system relating the unknown voxel light yields to the total detected photon signal. The resulting inverse problem is solved using nonnegative least squares, with an additional $L_2$ smoothness penalty used to stabilize weakly constrained voxel values. The method is studied in simulation using the ProtoDUNE-VD detector geometry and photon detection system. Reconstructed maps recover the dominant spatial structure of a visibility-based truth reference and respond as expected to changes in the photon detector configuration. Smoothness regularization reduces zero-valued voxels and localized fluctuations while leaving the detector-average light yield approximately unchanged at the selected regularization strengths. The voxel-wise RMSE relative to the truth reference is reduced by approximately 44% for the regularized reconstruction.
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All authors Alex Heindel, Wei Shi, Angelo Ralaikoto, Shuaixiang Zhang, Laura Paulucci, Franciole Marinho, Maressa Pimenta Sampaio, Sanskar Jain

Instrumentation and Detectors

Preventing quart-NaI adhesion in Bridgman growth using ammonium iodide

Adhesion between NaI(Tl) single crystals and the walls of quartz ampoules remains a major limitation for Bridgman growth under sealed conditions, particularly for applications requiring ultra-radiopure scintillators for dark matter searches, where sealed handling is essential. In this study, ammonium iodide (NH4I) was used as an additive to generate HI in situ, thereby suppressing the NaOH-SiO2 reaction that forms adhesive sodium silicate phases. Small-diameter crystals (8 mm) were first grown to determine the NH4I concentration required to eliminate adhesion. The optimized condition was then applied to the growth of a large NaI(Tl) crystal. A crack-free and bubble-free NaI(Tl) crystal with dimensions of 3 inches in diameter by 3 inches in length was successfully grown. The crystal exhibited a light output of 59,000 photons/MeV, which is higher than that of the commercial NaI(Tl) crystals used as references in this study.
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All authors Lam Tan Truc, N. T. Luan, Gul Rooh, O. Gileva, K.A. Shin, H.S. Lee, A. Iltis, C.R. Byeon, C.H. Lee, H.J. Kim

Instrumentation and Detectors

Reconstruction Bias in Timepix4 Subpixel Centroiding for Electron Imaging

Subpixel centroiding is widely used to improve the spatial resolution of hybrid pixel detectors for electron imaging by estimating the true interaction position within an entry pixel. Existing centroiding strategies are typically optimised using localisation accuracy. However, observations show that improved localisation does not necessarily translate into improved modulation transfer function (MTF) or reliable virtual-pixel rebinning. This work proposes a unified interpretation of these observations based on the ambiguity of the centroid reconstruction problem. We show that observable-based centroid estimators solve an intrinsically non-unique inverse problem using deterministic reconstruction rules, which can introduce entry-phase-dependent reconstruction bias that governs the spatial distribution of reconstructed subpixel coordinates. This framework explains why localisation accuracy alone is insufficient to predict imaging performance and identifies approximate intra-pixel translational symmetry as a prerequisite for faithful virtual-pixel imaging. The proposed interpretation is evaluated using simulated 200 keV and 300 keV electron data together with measured 200 keV data acquired with a Timepix4 detector. Comparisons of charge-weighted, timing-based, and morphology-dependent centroiding strategies demonstrate that estimators with similar localisation performance can exhibit markedly different MTFs and rebinned flat-field behaviour. The results suggest that future centroid optimisation should consider subpixel phase bias and rebinnability alongside localisation accuracy.
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Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Minimization of micromotion for nanoparticles in a Paul trap

When a charged particle in a Paul trap is displaced from the node of the AC trapping field, excess micromotion arises as an undesired effect. Excess micromotion heats the particle, limits the precision with which the particle can be localised, and acts as a decoherence channel in quantum mechanical experiments. However, thus far there is no standard procedure for micromotion compensation with mesoscopic particles. Here, we experimentally demonstrate three different methods for minimizing the micromotion of a nanoparticle in a linear Paul trap along three axes. The most precise method allows us to nullify the stray field to within 2.9 V/m, which is comparable to reported values in trapped-ion experiments.
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All authors Jamie Morley, Jean Paul Louys Sansó, Dmitry Bykov, Simon Baier, Tracy Northup

Instrumentation and Detectors

Ion Irradiation of GridPix Detector at Bonn Isochronous Cyclotron

The potential successor of the IXPE — the EXPO or Enhanced X-ray Polarimetry Observatory will have a new X-ray polarimeter based on GridPix technology. To certify this detector for operation within the expected radiation environment conditions, the irradiation tests were performed at the Bonn Isochronous Cyclotron at HISKPabbreviation\footnote{ stands for Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik or Helmholz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics}, University of Bonn. Two beam modes were used — proton beam at 14\,MeV and 100\,MeV $^{14}\mathrm{N}^{5+}$ ions. The aforementioned GridPix detector contains the readout ASIC, Timepix, with $256\times256$ pixel grid with a pitch of \SI{55}{\micro\meter} and covered with a protection layer. The Al grid stands on the SU8 pillars above pixels forming the amplification stage. The alignment of grid holes and silicon pixels enable primary electron detection. This paper focuses on the description and results of these testbeams. The accumulated ion rates exceed by far the expected limits without a significant deterioration in chip performance.
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All authors Vladislavs Plesanovs, Hemanth Manikantan, Dennis Sauerland, Paolo Soffitta, Carlo Lefevre, Ettore Del Monte, Jochen Kaminski, Reinhard Beck, Klaus Desch

Thursday 20 August

Instrumentation and Detectors

Current Status and Prospects of Neutron Detection and Neutron/Gamma Discrimination Technologies in Fusion Applications

Fusion research is progressing from physics-oriented experiments toward reactor-oriented engineering applications, placing increasing demands on the accuracy and reliability of neutron measurements. This review summarizes the current status and prospects of neutron detection and neutron/gamma discrimination technologies for fusion applications. The main sources, energy characteristics, and measurement requirements of fusion neutrons are first reviewed, with particular attention to 2.45 MeV D-D and 14.1 MeV D-T neutrons. Four principal neutron detection methods, including nuclear reaction, nuclear recoil, nuclear fission, and neutron activation, are discussed together with the operating characteristics and applicability of scintillation, gas, semiconductor, and other specialized detectors. The roles of neutron/gamma discrimination are then examined in plasma diagnostics, safe operation monitoring, radiation protection monitoring, and fusion reactor design. The review shows that different detection methods and detector types have distinct advantages and application boundaries, and no single detector provides an optimal solution for all fusion measurement tasks. Liquid scintillators and some organic crystals remain important for fast-neutron measurement and neutron/gamma discrimination, whereas gas and semiconductor detectors serve complementary roles in thermal-neutron monitoring, compact detection, radiation tolerance, and fast-neutron spectrometry. Future development is expected to focus on high-performance detectors, material damage assessment, intelligent real-time discrimination, and multi-detector coordination with system-level diagnostic integration.
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All authors Zhuo Zuo, Bingqi Liu, Hao Feng, Jie Zhang, Xianghe Liu, Haoran Liu, Peng Li, Qibiao Wang, Mingzhe Liu

Instrumentation and Detectors

Demonstration of inkjet-printed targets for activation cross-section measurements: deuteron-induced reactions on strontium up to 24 MeV

Excitation functions for the $^{nat}$Sr($d,x$) reactions producing $^{86m,g}$Y, $^{87m,g}$Y, and $^{88}$Y were measured up to 24-MeV deuteron energy using the stacked-foil technique and gamma-ray spectrometry. The $^{nat}$Sr targets were prepared using an inkjet printing method to ensure sufficient uniformity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental report of excitation functions measured using inkjet-printed targets, demonstrating the applicability of this technique to cross-section measurements. The measured cross sections were discussed in comparison with literature data and TENDL-2023 predictions. Our cross sections were generally consistent with those reported in the previous study, but were slightly higher in the threshold energy region. The TENDL-2023 library generally overestimates the experimental values. We report the experimental cross sections for the $^{nat}$Sr($d,x$)$^{86m}$Y reaction for the first time. These measured cross sections contribute to the refinement of nuclear reaction databases for practical applications.
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All authors Akihiro Nambu, Masayuki Aikawa, Yudai Shigekawa, Yousuke Kanayama, Tomohiro Tomitsuka, Sayantani Mitra, Hiromitsu Haba

Instrumentation and Detectors

Nanoscale silicon sensor - guided new insights into early metabolic response of Escherichia coli to ampicillin

Antibiotic killing is often attributed to inhibition of specific cellular targets, yet metabolic processes can strongly influence drug efficacy. However, the relationship between metabolic responses and antibiotic lethality remains incompletely understood. Here, we employed silicon nanowire field-effect transistor (SiNWFET) sensors to monitor real-time metabolic responses of Escherichia coli to ampicillin (AMP). AMP treatment induced a biphasic extracellular pH signature, characterized by rapid acidification followed by alkalization. Metabolomic analyses revealed that the initial acidification resulted from organic acid secretion, whereas the subsequent alkalization was associated with altered amino acid metabolism and formate flux. Using metabolic and respiratory mutants, we found that these extracellular signatures reflected pathway-specific metabolic rewiring that predicted bacterial killing. AMP lethality strongly correlated with ATP dynamics and formate secretion: strains exhibiting larger AMP-induced ATP increases and greater formate secretion showed enhanced susceptibility. In contrast to literature, changes in NADH and NADPH levels did not support redox stress as the primary bacterial-killing mechanism. Together, our findings identify formate metabolism as a key pathway underlying the elevated ATP levels associated with AMP bactericidal activity. These results demonstrate that SiNWFET sensors provide a versatile label-free tool for probing antibiotic mechanisms, rapidly assessing bacterial susceptibility, and potentially guiding antimicrobial therapy development.
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All authors Yingtao Yu, Victoria Nolan, Zheqiang Xu, Allison Jones, George Alhoush, Zhen Zhang, Sanna Koskiniemi

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from physics.optics

Oscillator-driven broadband femtosecond transient microspectroscopy with supercontinuum probes generated in a photonic crystal fiber

We present an oscillator-driven femtosecond transient microspectroscopy system based on supercontinuum generation in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The system operates at 80 MHz without pulse amplification, enabling high-sensitivity measurements with a detection sensitivity better than $10^{-4}$ while using low pulse energies suitable for microspectroscopy. Optimization of the PCF length ($\leq 50$ mm) suppresses dispersion-induced chirp, achieving nearly uniform temporal resolution below 100 fs across 450-900 nm. The high-repetition-rate operation allows rapid spectral acquisition and efficient noise reduction. The developed system provides micrometer-scale spatial resolution and supports both reflection and transmission configurations. Ultrafast carrier dynamics in multilayer and monolayer MoS$_2$ are successfully resolved, including spatially dependent relaxation within a single monolayer flake. These results demonstrate a versatile platform for probing local ultrafast dynamics in low-dimensional materials.
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All authors Rikuto Fukuda, Kyosuke Kishihata, Ryo Man-nami, Hiroaki Atsumi, Borja Cirera, DaeGwi Kim, Masahiro Shibuta

Instrumentation and Detectors

An Overview of Potential Medical Applications of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors

Microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) have proven to be a versatile detector technology and are very promising for several applications in medical imaging. Deep imaging into human tissues often requires detectors with low background noise, high detection efficiency, broad wavelength sensitivity or single-pixel energy resolution. MKIDs offer a unique combination of valuable features for medical imaging but have so far not been discussed much for modern medical instrumentation. This represents an exciting opportunity to investigate the potentially powerful advantages MKIDs could offer for clinical studies in several areas. The most promising fields for MKIDs in medical imaging include fluorescence microscopy, near-infrared spectroscopy, energy-resolved medical X-ray imaging and synchrotron X-ray microscopy. We present the respective advantages MKIDs offer for these fields and compare them to current detector state-of-the-art.
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All authors Cáthal McAleer, Gary Donegan, Colm Bracken, Oisín Creaner, Mario De Lucia, Tom Ray, Gerhard Ulbricht

Instrumentation and Detectors

Developing a Compact SWIR Imaging Spectrometer for CO2 and CH4 Retrieval Using Photonic Crystal Filters

The need for atmospheric measurements with higher spatial and temporal resolution is driving the development of satellites and satellite constellations to complement existing flagship missions. We are developing an instrument concept based on photonic crystal filters with tailored spectral transmission for trace gas retrieval. These filters can be integrated directly with the detector module, enabling a highly compact system architecture. In this work, we present performance simulations for methane and carbon dioxide retrieval in the 1.6 um SWIR band for a medium-resolution global coverage mission with an approximately 250 m spatial resolution and a 150 km swath. We furthermore introduce an improved retrieval algorithm that substantially reduces retrieval bias. These results demonstrate the potential of the proposed architecture for medium-resolution global greenhouse-gas mapping, with retrieval performance comparable to state-of-the-art global mapping missions such as the planned CO2M mission at substantially finer spatial resolution. This measurement approach also inherently compresses the acquired spectral information, reducing the need for high downlink data rates. In the coming year, these filters will be fabricated by NIL Technology, followed by mechanical integration and experimental validation in a breadboard system.
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All authors Marijn Siemons, Brecht Simon, Irina Malysheva, Ralf Kohlhaas

Wednesday 19 August

Instrumentation and Detectors

Retrofitting a commercial RF induction generator into a computer-controlled, vacuum and gas integrated annealing system for reactive-metal grain growth

High-temperature vacuum annealing near a metal's melting point drives controlled grain growth, but it normally requires an expensive turn-key vacuum induction furnace. We retrofit a bare commercial radio frequency (RF) induction generator with computer power control through LabVIEW, dual-wavelength optical temperature feedback, and a high-vacuum quartz-tube chamber with inert-gas backfill. A machined graphite crucible doubles as a susceptor, an RF-absorbing element that heats the specimen it encloses. The only requirement is a monotonic analog power-control input, so the retrofit transfers between generators. Our reference build uses a 6 kW solid-state generator. Surprisingly, nickel annealed in this system produced high-quality electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) patterns with zero specimen preparation. Samples went directly from the furnace to the electron microscope without grinding, polishing, or etching. The EBSD maps indexed hundreds of equiaxed grains delineated by deep thermal grooves. A modified sample assembly extends the furnace to ceramics that do not couple to the RF field. It coarsened yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) grains in 45 min at 2500{\deg}, compared with 228h at 1600{\deg} in a conventional box furnace. For a fixed configuration, the power-temperature calibration is linear ($R^2$ = 0.991) from 1200 to 1400{\deg}. Eight 12h nickel anneals at 1200{\deg} reproduced their soak temperature to 1201.2 $\pm$ 1.3{\deg}, and 40h soaks at 1325{\deg} remained stable. Complete design files, a bill of materials, control software, and data are openly available. This gives laboratories an affordable route to near-melting-point annealing with direct anneal-to-EBSD characterization.
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All authors Sterling G. Baird, Ryan Weber, Christopher Nyborg, Ronald Guymon, Gage Erickson, Oliver K. Johnson

Instrumentation and Detectors

A Gamma/Electron Spectrometer with Logarithmic ADC based on LC Tank Ring-Down Oscillation Counting

This paper describes the operating principle, circuit implementation, and mathematical basis of a logarithmic analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that exploits the natural exponential decay of a damped LC tank oscillator. An input charge pulse excites a tuned LC resonator into free oscillation. A multi-stage high-speed amplifier chain buffers the decaying waveform, and a fast comparator counts the number of oscillation cycles that exceed a programmable threshold. Because the tank envelope decays exponentially, the cycle count is proportional to the natural logarithm of the input charge, yielding logarithmic compression over a wide dynamic range without explicit logarithmic circuitry. The upgraded unit incorporates a modern MCU with USB, Ethernet interfaces and SD card for collected data storage. The architecture is well suited to applications requiring large dynamic range in a compact, low-power implementation.
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All authors S. Abovyan, A. Chilingarian, D. Pokhsraryan, B. Sargsyan, T. Karapetyan, V.Danielyan

Instrumentation and Detectors

PSEC6: an 8-Channel 40 GSa/s Waveform Sampling ASIC in TSMC 65nm with 10.24 GHz PLL

Picosecond level timing resolution is a prerequisite capability for improved coincidence matching, time-of-flight measurements, and secondary vertex reconstruction. Here, we present the specification, design, and simulation results for a new Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), called PSEC6, in the TSMC 65nm process. It features 8 channels, a maximum sampling rate of 40 GSa/s, a buffer length of 204.8 nanoseconds, and a 10.24 GHz Phase Locked Loop (PLL), which is the first of its kind in the 65nm CMOS process. The event readout rate is 32 kHz, with the digitization done by an off-chip Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC). Simulations predict a 4.0 GHz analog input bandwidth and 20 mW per channel during sampling; the 10.24 GHz PLL has a predicted jitter of 550 fs RMS at 15.7 mW. The paper describes the sampling architecture, chip signal paths, PLL design, and presents simulation results.
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All authors Ahan Datta, Andrew Arzac, Davide Braga, Gordon Chen, Troy England, Farah Fahim, Henry J. Frisch, Nathan Gehl, Mary Heintz, Sumin Kim, Ava Lalich, Jinseo Park, Nathaniel J. Pastika, Hector D. Rico-Aniles, Paul M. Rubinov, Xiaoran Wang, Y.M. Richmond Yeung

Instrumentation and Detectors

Characterisation of Commercially Available NUV-MT Silicon Photomultipliers

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) based on NUV-MT technology offer improved photo-detection efficiency and reduced correlated noise compared to earlier designs, making them increasingly attractive for particle and astroparticle physics applications. We present a systematic characterisation of commercially available Broadcom AFBR-S4N series NUV-MT SiPMs over a wide range of temperatures and overvoltages, from -85oC to 23oC and from 10-16V overvoltage (VoV). Key performance parameters are measured, including breakdown voltage, gain, signal-to-noise ratio, dark count rate, afterpulsing probability, and both internal and external optical crosstalk. At 12Vov and 23oC a dark noise of 107.2+/-2.1 kcps/mm^2 is measured, consistent with manufacturer specifications. At 12Vov and -30oC the measurements yielded an average dark noise of 1.69+/-0.12 kcps/mm^2, an average gain of (6.88+/-0.15)x10^6, an average signal to noise ratio of 13.6+/-0.9, an average afterpulsing probability of (0.59+/-0.06)%, an average direct crosstalk probability of (26.49+/-0.28)%, an average delayed crosstalk probability of (0.72+/-0.10)%, and an average external crosstalk probability of (0.10+/-0.04)%.
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All authors T. Avgitas, Z. Balmforth, I. Manthos, K. Nikolopoulos, C. Toukmenidis

Instrumentation and Detectors

Identifying Cost-Favorable Locations for Cosmic Explorer

Cosmic Explorer (CE) is a proposed next-generation gravitational-wave observatory that aims to extend our gravitational-wave vision to the edge of the observable universe. With a foundation of technology proven by the National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), CE will observe black holes and neutron stars across cosmic time, explore the nature of extreme matter with high fidelity, and probe the nature of gravity and fundamental physics. CE's reference design consists of two widely separated L-shaped detectors to be located in the conterminous United States, one with 20 km arms and one with 40 km arms. As of 2026, CE is in its design and site evaluation phase, with plans to begin observing in the early 2040s together with the Einstein Telescope in Europe. The size of CE observatories—up to an order of magnitude larger than the 4 km LIGO observatories—presents a significant challenge for identifying suitable candidate sites where CE will achieve its science goals, be built within cost boundaries, attract and retain a workforce, and align with community values. In this paper, we report on the design and use of a Python package, the Cosmic Explorer Location Search (CELS) package, to identify cost-favorable sites for CE. For a specified detector location and L-shaped geometry in the conterminous United States, CELS estimates site-preparation costs associated with excavation, land clearing, and land acquisition, while accounting for the scientific effects of detector tilt, arm length, and arm opening angle. After describing the package's methods, we present results for a national-level cost and positioning analysis that complements a recent national suitability analysis. We also discuss how future improvements to CELS will allow deeper, more local studies as the Cosmic Explorer team narrows its list of potential locations.
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All authors Laurence Datrier, Geoffrey Lovelace, Tooba Ansar, Lance Blagg, Warren Bristol, Matthew Evans, Chris Lukinbeal, Vuk Mandic, Kiet Pham, Jocelyn Read, Sarmad Rameez, Amber Romero, Oscar Romero, Babatunde Isaac Rotimi, Joshua B. Russell, Andrew Saenz, Francois Schiettekatte, Robert Schofield, David H. Shoemaker, Bretton Simpson, Bram J.J. Slagmolen, Joshua R. Smith

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from hep-ex

Exploring the limits of high-energy proton-pion separation in granular calorimeters

Highly granular calorimeters provide detailed information about hadronic-shower development that may enable particle identification beyond their conventional role in energy measurement. We investigate how well this information can distinguish protons from positively charged pions and how the achievable discrimination depends on detector segmentation and particle energy. The study uses Geant4 simulations of isolated particles with energies from 10 to 100 GeV in a homogeneous lead-tungstate calorimeter. A Deep Sets model operating directly on cell positions and detected energy and time outperforms a boosted decision tree based on reconstructed shower observables. With cells measuring $3 \times 3 \times 6$ mm$^3$, Deep Sets achieves an accuracy of 93.8% at 10 GeV, decreasing to 67.2% at 100 GeV. Shower topology is independently informative, deposited energy provides the largest additional contribution, and timing supplies complementary information. Coarser segmentation reduces discrimination, with performance more sensitive to longitudinal than transverse granularity. These results provide an encouraging benchmark for calorimeter-based hadron identification and motivate its inclusion among the optimization targets for future highly granular calorimeters.
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All authors Andrea De Vita, Abhishek, Tommaso Dorigo, Pietro Vischia

Instrumentation and Detectors

The Radioactive Background of the JUNO Calibration System

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) experiment is a reactor antineutrino detector employing 20 kton of ultra-pure liquid scintillator to determine the neutrino mass ordering and to precisely measure oscillation parameters. The total singles background rate from radioactivity is required to be below 10 Hz in the energy range of 0.7-12 MeV within the fiducial volume for reactor neutrino analysis. The calibration system is designed to characterize the detector energy and position responses, while several of its components are located close to the target and may contribute to the background budget. Therefore, extensive material screening and selection are required to construct a low-background calibration system and to ensure that its contribution remains within the design requirements. In this work, a comprehensive study of the radioactive background induced by the calibration system is presented, including material radioactivity measurements using high-purity germanium detectors and neutron activation analysis techniques, detailed Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the background, and comparisons with in-situ detector data to validate the predictions. In this data analysis, dedicated spatial selection methods are developed to isolate calibration-related contributions and to suppress the liquid scintillator background. The total radioactivity contribution from the calibration system is estimated to be less than 76 mHz, which satisfies the requirement of 200 mHz (2% of the total background budget). The results from in-situ data are found to be consistent with the expectations based on material assay and simulation within uncertainties. These results demonstrate that the calibration-induced background is well understood, in agreement between data and simulation, and negligible for reactor antineutrino measurements in JUNO.
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All authors Rui Li, Youhui Yun, Zhangming Chen, Junting Huang, Jiaqi Hui, Haojing Lai, Jianglai Liu, Yankai Liu, Yue Meng, Akira Takenaka, Ziqian Xiang, Feiyang Zhang, Ping Zhang, Qingmin Zhang, Tao Zhang, Yuanyuan Zhang

Instrumentation and Detectors

On-chip Bragg peak extraction from MHz frame rate X-ray detectors using a cellular automaton architecture

High-frame rate pixel detectors can produce data volumes that exceed available off-chip bandwidth, yet in many applications only a sparse subset of each frame carries relevant information. Spatially localized events, including diffraction peaks in crystallography, particle hits in tracking detectors, fluorescence spots in biological imaging, and other applications, all require that clusters of above-threshold pixels be identified and extracted from an otherwise featureless background. Conventionally this is performed in software algorithms such as connected-component labeling on full frames, but at MHz frame rates the resulting throughput becomes prohibitive. We present a lightweight hardware architecture that performs peak localization and patch extraction directly in the sensor silicon, transmitting only small pixel patches rather than complete frames. FPGA-based testing on an AMD Alveo V80 validated the synthesizability and timing closure of the peak-finding module in real hardware. The design replaces global connected-component labeling with a cellular automaton that uses purely local, fixed-iteration neighborhood operations, eliminating the label storage and equivalence-resolution logic that make conventional approaches impractical on-chip. We validate the architecture on X-ray Bragg peak detection for far-field high-energy diffraction microscopy and show that every peak found by a software reference is recovered, with equivalent downstream reconstructions. The architecture sustains several-hundred-kHz frame rates in 130nm CMOS and exceeds 1MHz in 28nm.
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All authors S. Fowler, S. Strempfer, D. Beniwal, M. Hammer, H. Shi, S. Gnanasekaran, N. Contini, T. Guruswamy, Y. Chen, L. Rota, D. Doering, A. Dragone, T. Zhou, M. Cherukara, K. Yoshii, A. Miceli

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from hep-ex

Technical Proposal for the Atom Interferometer CERN Experiment (AICE) Facility

We present the technical proposal for the Atom Interferometer CERN Experiment (AICE), a $\mathcal{O}(100)$ m vertical atom interferometer to be installed against the wall of the PX46 access shaft to the LHC. AICE is conceived as a versatile and flexible long-baseline atom-interferometry facility whose primary scientific goal is probing for bosonic ultralight dark matter (ULDM) in a mass range inaccessible to other experiments, with a secondary goal of pioneering the exploration of gravitational waves (GWs) with frequencies in the range ${\sim}$0.03-3 Hz as a pathfinder for future longer-baseline detectors. The initial configuration employs ultracold $^{87}$Sr atoms in a single-photon 698-nm interferometer with three shaft-based atom sources in a multi-source gradiometer geometry, supported by one surface reference source for laser stabilisation and diagnostics, to target scalar ULDM. Operation with $^{88}$Sr will give sensitivity to axion-like particles (ALPs), vector ULDM with $B-L$ couplings and violation of the principle of equivalence, while a $^{171}$Yb upgrade will improve the sensitivity to $B-L$ couplings and equivalence violations. Probing the Einstein equivalence principle (EP) and measuring $\alpha$ will proceed in parallel with the ULDM searches. A conceptual feasibility study and a detailed technical implementation study have established that PX46 is a uniquely mature and implementation-ready site, with no technical showstoppers. Completing site preparation works during LS3 would enable the subsequent installation and operation of AICE without impacting HL-LHC operations. The detector design builds on the VLBAI and MAGIS experiments and the AION-10 Technical Design Report, scaling the strontium gradiometer architecture to the $\sim$100 m baseline. AICE is endorsed by the TVLBAI Proto-Collaboration, comprising 57 institutions in 22 countries.
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All authors Gianluigi Arduini, Nadja Augst, Mark G. Bason, Charles Baynham, Andrea Bertoldi, Gianfranco Bertone, Diego Blas, Daniela Bortoletto, Sougato Bose, Roberto Ales Bozzi, Oliver Buchmueller, Tamara Alice Bud, Clare Burrage, Sergio Calatroni, John Carlton, Vassilis Charmandaris, Maria Luisa Chiofalo, Pierre Cladé, Jonathon Coleman, Fabio Corsanego, Albert De Roeck, Arnaud Devienne, Fabio Di Pumpo, John Ellis, Pierre Fayet, Chris Foot, Elina Fuchs, Naceur Gaaloul, Susan Gardner, Enno Giese, Eduardo Granados, Saïda Guellati-Khelifa, Michael Guinchard, Timo Hakulinen, Tiffany Harte, Richard Hobson, Michael Holynski, Angelo Infantino, Alex Kehagias, Eva Kilian-Rademacher, Wolfgang Korsch, Damien Lafarge, Samuel Lellouch, Lucas Lombriser, Elias Lopez Asamar, J. Luis Lopez-Gonzalez, Michele Maggiore, Charline Marcel, Anna Marchant, Christopher McCabe, Gaetano Mileti, Peter Millington, Jeremiah Mitchell, Noam Mouelle, Angel Navascues Cornago, François Pillon, Rosa Poggiani, Johann Rafelski, Ernst M. Rasel, Maike Reckermann, Albert Roura, Rui Samoes, Federico Sanchez Nieto, Jack Sander, Carlo Scarcia, Jesse Schelfhout, Wolfgang Schleich, Dennis Schlippert, Ulrich Schneider, Steven Schramm, Florian Schreck, Olga Sergijenko, Marcelle Soares-Santos, Guglielmo M. Tino, Jonathan N. Tinsley, Tristan Valenzuela, Daniel Valuch, Maurits van der Grinten, Klaasjan van Druten, Ville Vaskonen, Wolf von Klitzing, Michael Werner

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from hep-ex

Exact time-correlated coincidence modeling with reset boundaries

Delayed-coincidence searches identify a rare prompt-delayed signal, but their accidental background is not a simple product of marginal rates: muon vetoes, event dead time, and delayed events created before the current window condition which event sequences can be recorded. We derive exact ordered coincidence rates, within a stated stochastic model, for a recorded stream of uncorrelated prompt-like singles and correlated prompt-delayed sources subject to Poisson reset boundaries and event dead time. The calculation separates two tasks: a Markov history chain carries the delayed events still pending at reset boundaries across windows, and a current-window propagator evaluates the ordered within-window integrals in closed form with block-matrix exponentials, the matrix-analytic toolkit of applied probability. The construction extends to any prescribed finite multiplicity by increasing the block-chain depth. Here we report every ordered one-, two-, and three-fold rate formed from uncorrelated singles, correlated prompts, and recorded delayed events, together with the genuine/accidental split of prompt-delayed pairs, multiplicity efficiencies, and the aggregate rate for multiplicity four or more. For the default window-close convention, we derive a three-term a posteriori error bound for the finite pending-population truncation. An independent streaming toy Monte Carlo validates the ordered rates, two-fold time densities, matched dead-time conventions, and aggregate high multiplicity. Within the stated assumptions, the construction is exact on the retained finite state spaces and provides explicit, computable truncation-error bounds.
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Instrumentation and Detectors

Study of the intrinsic resolution of LaBr3(Ce,Sr) and NaI(Tl) crystals

The Gravitational wave burst high-energy Elec?tromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) utilizes a large number of LaBr3 and NaI(Tl) crystals as sensitive materials for its gamma-ray detectors. To address the fitting issues of the energy resolution curves in the ground calibration of the GECAM detectors, this work conducts a comprehensive testing and comparative study of the energy resolution of 1-inch LaBr3(Ce,Sr) and NaI(Tl) crystals produced from the same batch. We employed a Hard X-ray Calibration Facility (HXCF), a PMT single-photoelectron calibration system, and Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation tools to quantify seven factors influencing energy resolution. The results indicate that the contributions of various components to energy resolution differ, with pho?toelectron statistical fluctuations and intrinsic resolution being predominant. For 100 keV X-rays, the total energy resolution of the LaBr3(Ce,Sr) crystal is 3.71% \pm 0.03% (expressed as 1-{\sigma}), with a contribution from photoelectron statistical fluctuations of 2.69% \pm 0.00% and an intrinsic resolution of 2.45% \pm 0.05%. For 100 keV X-rays, the total energy resolution of the NaI(Tl) crystal is 4.41% \pm 0.14% (expressed as 1-{\sigma}), with a contribution from photoelectron statistical fluctuations of 3.20% \pm 0.00% and an intrinsic resolution of 2.90% \pm 0.21%. We discussed the sources of intrinsic resolution, and the results indicate that the intrinsic resolution of the LaBr3(Ce,Sr) crystal primarily arises from luminescence non-proportionality, while that of the NaI(Tl) crystal mainly stems from fluctuations during energy transfer. This study emphasizes precise and specific experimental measurements and comparative research, demonstrating that both factors are important contributors to intrinsic resolution.
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All authors Peiyi Feng, Xilei Sun, Zhenghua An, Dali Zhang, Xinqiao Li, Shaolin Xiong, Hong Lu

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from physics.plasm-ph

Beam-Tracing-Based Quantitative Reconstruction of Density Fluctuations in QUEST Using Doppler Backscattering

A three-channel X-/Ku-band Doppler backscattering (DBS) system has been developed and installed on QUEST for turbulence and electric-field measurements. In spherical tokamaks, the large magnetic-field pitch angle increases the geometric mismatch between the probing beam wave vector and the local magnetic-field vector, reducing the effective perpendicular projection and resulting in a systematic underestimation of the measured scattering intensity. In addition, in QUEST, where low plasma density requires a low-frequency probe beam, beam propagation effects become increasingly significant, further complicating the interpretation of the measured DBS power in terms of local density fluctuation amplitude. To address these issues, a quantitative correction methodology based on the synthetic DBS code SCOTTY was established. All relevant diagnostic response effects were evaluated using SCOTTY along ray trajectories, yielding a correction factor for reconstructing the local turbulence amplitude from the measured scattering signal. The correction factor exhibits strong spatial and frequency dependence, varying by up to an order of magnitude between the plasma core and edge regions, highlighting the necessity of frequency-dependent corrections. By applying the derived correction factor to experimental measurements, quantitative density fluctuation amplitudes were reconstructed from the detected scattering signals. Evaluation of the fluctuation amplitude indicates enhanced turbulence activity in the plasma edge region, where a finite negative radial electric field is inferred. This work demonstrates the first quantitative turbulence evaluation using low-frequency X-/Ku-band DBS measurements in QUEST and establishes a framework for quantitative DBS analysis in spherical tokamaks.
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All authors T. Kinoshita, T. Tokuzawa, V. H. Hall-Chen, Y. T. Tan, T. Ido, H. Idei, R. Ikezoe, K. Hanada, M. Hasegawa, T. Onchi, Y. Peng

Tuesday 18 August

Instrumentation and Detectors

Transferable Fast Calorimeter Shower Generation via Multi-Geometry Pre-training

Detailed Geant4 simulation of calorimeter showers dominates the computing budget of high-energy physics experiments. Deep generative surrogates reduce this cost, but they have remained tied to the detector they were trained on, so each new geometry needs a large in-domain dataset. We study whether a single point cloud shower generator can be pre-trained on multiple detectors and transferred to unseen calorimeters. The pre-training geometries come from synthetic geometric variation rather than real-detector data. We introduce SimpleBox, a family of $10^4$ box calorimeters spanning the plane of sampling fraction and longitudinal segmentation, and benchmark it against pre-training on realistic detectors. On a calorimeter unseen in pre-training, with $10^3$ target showers for fine-tuning, the two priors reduce the aggregated sliced Wasserstein distance to Geant4 by factors of 5.2 (synthetic) and 8.0 (realistic) relative to training from scratch. At larger target sizes the synthetic prior performs better than the realistic one. Geometric diversity alone is therefore a practical way to pre-train a transferable shower generator.
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All authors Thorsten Buss, Henry Day-Hall, Frank Gaede, Gregor Kasieczka, Katja Krüger, Peter McKeown, Lorenzo Valente

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from astro-ph.IM

Radiation damage to the Hubble Space Telescope has been several years out of phase with the Solar cycle

As well as obtaining beautiful images of the Universe, the Hubble Space Telescope's CCD detectors are sensitive radiation dosimeters that have been monitored in Low Earth Orbit for more than 24 years. The rate of radiation damage they received has varied over each Solar cycle, but several years out of phase with the appearance of sunspots or coronal mass ejections. We investigate functional forms that successfully fit the time series of damage to telescopes elsewhere in the Solar system. We obtain remarkably accurate fits to Hubble data but with physically absurd parameter values. During image post-processing, such fits can be used empirically, to correct more than 99.5% of the radiation damage's effect on image quality. However, fits to the time series with physically reasonable parameters produce worse performance. Our results highlight the diversity of radiation environments in different parts of our Solar system, and the complexity of Low Earth Orbit in particular. Our results also motivate continued monitoring of radiation damage to currently operational spacecraft, to more reliably predict the rate of degradation in (and useful lifespan of) future missions.
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All authors Gavin Leroy, Juan Paolo Lorenzo Gerardo Barrios, Maximilian von Wietersheim-Kramsta, Richard Massey, Richard G. Hayes, Jacob A. Kegerreis, David Lagattuta, Zane D. Lentz, James W. Nightingale, Jesper Skottfelt, Felix Vecchi

2608.18214 · 18 Aug · Paper presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2026. Accompanying poster can be found at https://spie.org/astronomical-telescopes-instrumentation/presentation/Radiation-damage-to-the-Hubble-Space-Telescope-has-been-several/14145-131

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from physics.med-ph

Flexible Piezoresistive Yarn Pressure Sensor for Arterial Blood Pressure Waveform Measurement

The arterial blood pressure (ABP) waveform contains essential information concerning the hemodynamic status and its relation to the diagnosis of cardiovascular conditions. Therefore, the continuous monitoring of the ABP waveform has become important. A measurement system that offers a non-invasive approach and high accuracy in detecting morphological details of the ABP waveform is needed. In this study, we introduce a flexible piezoresistive yarn (FPY) pressure sensor for continuous non-invasive ABP waveform measurement. The sensor was experimentally validated using two scenarios: measurements on a hardware simulator and at an arterial site. The simulator measurement aimed to assess the sensor's performance in detecting consistent waveforms, while the arterial site measurements evaluated the sensor's performance in measuring ABP waveforms corresponding to the cardiovascular cycle. The simulator measurement results showed high repeatability, reproducibility, and accuracy relative to the reference signal at the upper limit of realistic force magnitude, as measured by the correlation metric: 0.9999 $\pm$ 0.0002, 0.9994 $\pm$ 0.0002, and 0.9731 $\pm$ 0.0027, respectively. The correlation value derived from measurements at the arterial site compared with measurements using a 3D force sensor as a reference sensor was 0.9880 $\pm$ 0.0035. Based on our results, the FPY pressure sensor can be used as an innovative solution for monitoring ABP waveforms and has further potential to be developed as a diagnostic device for evaluating cardiovascular conditions.
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All authors Rizal Maulana, Ádám Rák, Sándor Földi, György Cserey

Instrumentation and Detectors · Cross-listed from quant-ph

Quantum sensors that compute: quantum computational magnetic-field sensing using a superconducting qubit

A measurement of a single-qubit quantum sensor reveals at most 1 bit of information about the signal that was sensed. To perform a classification task on the signal, the conventional approach is to repeat a sensing protocol many times, averaging the measurement results to obtain a high-precision estimate of the sensed signal, and then to apply classical postprocessing. Quantum computational sensing (QCS) is an alternative approach that breaks with the paradigm of first obtaining a classical estimate of the signal and then computing a function of the estimated signal in postprocessing. QCS instead combines quantum sensing with quantum computing to concentrate information about the signal relevant to the task into the solitary bit revealed by each measurement. Here, we report on the experimental demonstration of QCS where sensing and computing were both performed by the same single superconducting transmon qubit. We consider various binary classification tasks based on static and oscillating magnetic fields induced by current through a flux line. The fields were sensed through a double-junction superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) loop that was part of the qubit. We used a protocol based on quantum signal processing to preprocess the sensed signals in the quantum domain prior to measurement. For tasks on static magnetic fields, our protocol outperformed the conventional baseline of Ramsey-based phase estimation by as much as 15 percentage points. For tasks on oscillating magnetic fields, we classified signal amplitude and frequency with up to 20 and 15 percentage points higher accuracy, respectively, compared to the conventional baseline of optimized dynamical-decoupling protocols. Our results illustrate how quantum computing can enhance quantum sensing even with a minimally sized quantum system subject to the practical limitations of decoherence and error-prone operations.
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All authors Purnendu Sen, Mathieu Ouellet, Saeed A. Khan, Wayne Wang, Sridhar Prabhu, Alen Senanian, William P. Banner, William D. Oliver, Peter L. McMahon

Instrumentation and Detectors

Scintillation Properties of a Stilbene Crystal for Low-Mass Dark Matter Searches

Direct searches for low-mass WIMPs require sensitivity to low-energy nuclear recoils. Hydrogen-containing targets offer favorable scattering kinematics because low-mass WIMPs can transfer a larger fraction of their kinetic energy to hydrogen nuclei than to heavier nuclei. Trans-stilbene (t-stilbene) is a hydrogen-rich organic crystal that combines this kinematic advantage with efficient scintillation and pulse-shape discrimination (PSD).In this work, we characterize the scintillation decay behavior and effective light yield of a solution-grown t-stilbene crystal to evaluate its suitability for dark matter detection. The detector consists of a cylindrical crystal approximately 1.1 cm in diameter and 1.1 cm in length, optically coupled at opposite ends to two Hamamatsu R12669 photomultiplier tubes. The scintillation waveforms are described by a triple-exponential decay model, yielding fraction-weighted decay time constants of $8.3 \pm 0.2$ ns (fast), $20.1 \pm 0.3$ ns (medium), and $74.2 \pm 1.1$ ns (slow). The effective light yield, determined using a 59.54 keV $\gamma$ ray from an $^{241}$Am source, is $3.37 \pm 0.02$ photoelectrons per keV.These measurements establish the baseline performance of the detector and support further evaluation of t-stilbene as a target material for rare-event and low-mass dark matter searches.
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All authors Se Hwan Lee, Jaeyoung Cho, D. Joseph Daniel, Hongjoo Kim, Young Ju Ko, Jungho So, In Soo Lee

Monday 17 August

Instrumentation and Detectors

A Silicon Photonic Transmitter for High Energy Physics and Cryogenic Detectors

We demonstrate a silicon photonic transmitter designed for reading out physics detectors in extreme environments. The transmitter operates at room and cryogenic temperature and consists of a micro-ring modulator and a co-designed CMOS serializer and driver.