Undergraduate Student Research Projects, with the Syracuse University High Energy Physics Group

Erika Cowan   (Syracuse University) Erika spent most of Summer 2012 doing R&D on diamond sensors, as a potential replacement for silicon in the upgraded VELO Silicon Vertex Detector of the LHCB Experiment.  Diamond can be used for charged particle detection, and has an advantage over silicon in terms of its radiation hardness, but a disadvantage in terms of the amount of charge collected from passing particles.  Additionally diamond sometimes exhibits fluctuations in its leakage current over extended periods of time. During the Summer, Erika implemented a high-level analysis of the large data-sets taken to characterize the long-term stability of diamond.  To accomplish this, she learned to use ROOT, a statistical package used in high energy physics.  She wrote analysis scripts to run over these large data-sets, and extracted stability parameters for the devices. See the talk on this work. Erika also investigated conventional silicon devices by characterizing several devices through series of IV and CV measurements using a source/measurement unit and probe station  in our clean room. For this work Erika learned sophisticated semiconductor measurement and handling techniques.  Recently, she has been calibrating another kind of electronics, called an FPGA, which is being considered for use in LHCb and has been undergoing tests of its radiation tolerance.  Additionally, Erika contributed to the SU QuarkNet program by leading the Gamma Ray Scintillation Spectroscopy activity.  Erika has gained a lot of experience with C++ and experimental techniques during this time.  She works in our lab mainly under the supervision of Ray Mountain, and at times J.C. Wang. Erika is a Sophomore at Syracuse University with a dual major in Physics and Math.   Emily Kraus   (Syracuse University) Emily also spent most of Summer 2012 working on diamond sensors, as described above, and took much of the long-term data-sets that characterize the stability of diamond, over the course of several months.  To make a preliminary pass on the data, she developed an analysis technique, based on an exponentially-weighted averaging (EWMA) with a statistical deviation variables, and applied it to the data (summarized here).  This technique did a good job at illuminating the underlying behavior of the diamond.  Further, she did some work on developing a computational model to simulate the details ofdiamond behavior. Emily worked on other aspects of tracking detector development, for the upgrade of the TT silicon tracker in the LHCB Experiment.  She constructed a test stand to measure the thermal  properties mock structures that are being considered for the construction of the detector system.  She had to learn analog-to-digital electronics and LabVIEW  programming  in order to do this.  This test stand is being used to model the heating and cooling of hybrids and staves for the silicon tracker (see her status report).  If not done correctly, this could lead to thermal runaway in the silicon.  This experimental approach is very much needed when designing a new detector.  Additionally, Emily contributed to the SU QuarkNet summer program by leading the Cosmic Ray Muon Lifetime activity.  Emily learned a lot about material properties, electronics and programming from this experience.  She works in our lab under the supervision of Ray Mountain. Emily is a Sophomore at Syracuse University with a dual major in Physics and Math.   Anna Fadeeva   (Syracuse University) Anna has been working on characterizing the new nanocomposite materials we are considering for the R.F. Foil surrounding the VELO Silicon Vertex Detector in the LHCB Experiment (see discussion below).  In Summer 2011, she continued the series of measurements started by Dylan, with emphasis on the dynamics of creep and relaxation.  These were copious detailed and fine-scaled measurements, which illuminated the time-dependent behavior of this new and interesting material. During the Spring semester 2011, Anna designed and constructed a setup to measure the density of flat coupon samples of nanocomposite material.  What she actually measured was an optical density using a laser-and-photodiode xy-scanning technique.  This yielded very interesting results on the uniformity of the internal structure of the nanocomposite.  Anna has learned about dynamic material behavior, data-taking, analysis techniques and LabVIEW programming while working in our lab under the supervision of Ray Mountain. Anna is a Sophomore at Syracuse University with a dual major in Physics and Math, who appreciates the orthogonal.   Dylan Hsu   (Syracuse University) Dylan has worked on two different projects since Fall 2010.  Most recently, he has been working on characterizing a novel material development for potential use in the LHC accelerator at CERN.  This material is a nanocomposite made of carbon fibers, epoxy and nanoparticles (fabricated by Composite Mirror Applications, Inc.).  Its use would be in separating the ultra-high vacuum in the LHC beampipe from the high vacuum in the VELO Silicon Vertex Detector.  It needs to be very light in terms of mass thickness so the particles passing through it would have a reduced amount of Coulomb scattering, which would make a real improvement to the tracking capability of the VELO. The implementation as R.F. Foil requires that the structure be shaped (see photo) and quite thin (~300 microns thick).  Dylan designed and constructed a device to measure the force vs deflection curves for several samples of this new material.  He made many series of measurements of the deflection of the materials under force loads, as well as measurements of material creep and multi-component relaxation. Previously, Dylan worked on a thermal mock-up for the VELO detector Upgrade, with Brian Maynard.  He learned how to program in LabVIEW (in record time) and how to readout an array of RTDs in order to measure the steady-state temperature profile for various VELO module configurations.  The mock-up was used successfully to confirm ANSYS simulations of the upgrade design. Dylan learned a lot about materials, data acquisition, and statistical analysis from these projects.  He works in our lab under the supervision of Ray Mountain. Dylan is a Sophomore Physics major at Syracuse University.   Ryan Badman   (Syracuse University) Ryan has been working in our group since Spring 2010 on a new development in electronics for pixel detector applications in high energy physics experiments.  Called Timepix (derived from Medipix) this electronics reads out high density arrays of silicon diode sensors with a speed and precision good enough for use in tracking high energy particles as well as for use in medical imaging.  This work is focused on the upgrade to the VELO Silicon Vertex Detector of the LHCB Experiment at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics Research). Since Timepix is a new device, Ryan is busy making a series of tests to assess the minimum detectable charge and to calibrate the absolute charge response of each of the 256x256 pixels in this device, using test pulse injection.  One outcome is the delination of the "surrogate function" which describes the relation between the injection charge and chip output.  Ryan has learned a lot about detectors, micro-electronics and C++ programming from this work.  He has reported on his work here and he has also given a more general presentation on the Timepix to our HEP Journal Club.  He works in our lab under the principal supervision of Marina Artuso. Ryan is a Junior at Syracuse University with a dual major in Physics and Math.   Richard Tanski   (Syracuse University) Richard spent most of Summer 2011 doing R&D on diamond sensors, as a potential replacement for silicon in the upgraded VELO Silicon Vertex Detector of the LHCB Experiment.  Diamond can be used for charged particle detection, and has an advantage over silicon in terms of its radiation hardness, but a disadvantage in terms of the amount of charge collected from passing particles.  Consequently, the setup to measure the behavior is complicated and requires careful cross-checking. During the Summer, Richard made many measurements of the charge collection in diamond, as well as reducing the data with some sophisticaed analysis code.  A lot of time was spent on eliminating extraneous noise and improving signal quality.  Additionally, he made several series of calibration measurements for the amplifier and ADC, including a nice analysis of the internal circuitry.  Previously, Richard worked with Ryan in making Timepix measurements, as described above. Richard has gained a lot of practical experience with C++ and analog electronics during this project.  He works in our lab under the supervision of Marina Artuso and Ray Mountain. Richard is a Senior at Syracuse University with a dual major in Physics and EE.   Jeffrey Wiseman   (Syracuse University) Jeff worked on diamond detector R&D during the Summer of 2009 and into the following Academic Year.  This is an exciting new prospect for the upgrade to the VELO Detector of the LHCB Experiment at CERN, due to the intrinsic radiation hardness of diamond.  He spent a good deal of time measuring basic RV, CV and IV characteristics of the diamond, in order to establish basic diamond behavior under high bias voltage conditions. For more details, you can see one of his presentations (but keep in mind that this reports on work in progress and not finished work). Previously, Jeff worked on silicon detector R&D during the Summer of 2008.  He continued the work started by Carl Goodrich (see below), using a silicon chip probe station to characterize several types of pixel sensors.  These sensors are a part of the RD50 Project at CERN.  He made a series of measurements of the IV (current-voltage) characteristic for these sensors, which gives an indication of the voltage at which the sensor has full charge collection efficiency (for charge that is deposited by the passing particles produced in the high energy collisions).  This allows evaluation as to the suitability of these sensors for use in the VELO upgrade. Jeff got valuable experience in setting up and troubleshooting high precision electronics instrumentation, which can sometimes be touchy.  However, getting good measurements from such equipment is rewarding in the end, in spite of all the checking and cross-checking that is necessary.  He worked in our lab under the supervision of Marina Artuso, Gwen Lefeuvre and Ray Mountain. Jeff graduated from Syracuse University with Physics major.  He has headed off to graduate school, to pursue an interest in Nanotechnology.    Carl Goodrich   (Syracuse University) Carl worked on analysis of beam test data for the VELO Silicon Vertex Detector of the LHCB Experiment at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics Research) during the the Summer of 2007.  After that, he worked on silicon detector R&D during the 2007-2008 Academic Year.  He used a silicon chip probe station to characterize the IV curve for several types of pixel sensor geometries, some of which were irradiated in order to test the capability of the device to perform sufficiently well after years in the harsh radiation environment of a modern particle accelerator like the LHC.   Carl got a lot of hands-on experience in both analysis techniques and in working with silicon pixel sensors.  He learned the sophisticated software used for analysis and even wrote some of his own.  He did important studies based on beam test data taken in 2006 that demonstrated the stability of operation of the VELO detector.  His work was presented at a LHCb collaboration meeting.  Carl also did an interesting series of systematic studies of pixel sensors, measuring the current-voltage (IV) characteristic.  You can look at his final report for this sensor work.  He worked in our lab under the supervision of Marina Artuso and Gwen Lefeuvre.  Carl graduated from Syracuse University with a multiple major in Physics, Engineering Physics, and Math.  He has gone on to graduate school in Physics at U Penn, where he no doubt remains an inveterate BoSox fan in the land of the Phils.   Jeremy Chapman   (Syracuse University) Jeremy worked on silicon detector R&D in the Summer of 2006 and into the following academic year.  He set up a station to make electronic tests of new silicon pixel sensors.  These are new detector architectures that may be used as an upgrade of the VELO Silicon Vertex Detector, a major part of the LHCB Experiment at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics Research), and are based on previous work on the FPIX0 chip, done for the BTEV Pixel Detector.  He studied their response to various pulse levels and their fast timing properties.   Jeremy got some hands-on experience in working with forefront silicon pixel designs.  He rather quickly installed Visual C++ and integrated it with the pixel readout electronics.  This is the kind of understanding that you can not get from a course, but only can get from careful tests over a longer period of time.  If you are interested in asking him about his research experience, you can email him.  He worked in our lab under the supervision of Marina Artuso. Jeremy graduated from Syracuse University, with a dual major in Physics and Computer Engineering, and an EE minor.  He was named a University Scholar for the Class of 2007, the highest undergraduate academic honor bestowed by the University.  He went on to graduate school at Brown University, working on the LUX experiment to detect dark matter.    Chris McDonald   (Syracuse University) Chris worked on detector R&D during the Fall of 2005 and Spring of 2006.  He constructed and tested seven scintillation trigger counters, to be used in a beam test of the VELO Silicon Vertex Detector of the LHCB Experiment at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics Research) in the Summer of 2006.  He studied the basic behavior of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and plastic scintillator material, using a PMT test station with a multi-channel analyzer, as shown in the photograph.  In particular, he measured the pulse-height spectrum and the signal-to-noise ratio for these devices.   Chris got a lot of experience in designing, constructing and testing these photon detectors.  He made all the pieces needed for the counters--some of which were tricky, like the optical lightguides which were made of a special UV-transmitting acrylic and needed to be hand-polished to optical quality.  This took a lot of effort!  He finished them by epoxying and wrapping the counters so that they would be light-tight and could work in a laboratory environment.  The counters were used very successfully in the beam test at CERN.  For more info, you can see the poster that Chris made on this this work, which he presented at SU's Mayfest 2006.  He worked in our lab under the supervision of Ray Mountain and Sheldon Stone. Chris graduated from the SU Physics Program, and went on to get his Master's Degree in Astronautical Engineering at the University of Southern California.     Anthony White   (Syracuse University) Anthony worked on electronics R&D during the Spring of 2006.  He begun work on a test station to characterize new pixel detectors, which may be use in an upgrade of the VELO Silicon Vertex Detector, a major part of the LHCB Experiment at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics Research).   He learned about electronic readout and computer interfaces.  For extra fun, he also helped Chris McDonald with the construction of the trigger counters (see above).   Anthony continued his undergraduate studies at Syracuse University.   Nate Kuslis   (Syracuse University) Nate worked on a silicon detector R&D during the Fall of 2005.  He worked on setting up a Infrared Laser Test Station which will be used to measure the response of silicon pixel sensors to pulses of IR photons (this mimics ionization energy deposition by charged particles produced in high-energy collisions).  The pixel sensors to be used are part of an effort to upgrade the VELO Silicon Vertex Detector, of the LHCB Experiment at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics Research).   Nate learned some things about mechanical work, as he needed to fix the 2-D motion control stage that moves the silicon wafer around under the laser beam.  He also got some computing experience, programming the controller for this stage and interfacing it with a LabVIEW-based PC.   Nate continued his studies in the Department of Physics at Syracuse University.   Levon Vogelsang   (Syracuse University) Levon worked on electronics R&D during the Summer of 2005.  He worked on the high-sensitivity readout electronics for MAPMT photon detectors, originally designed for the RICH Detector of the BTEV Experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.  He studied the factors that influence the performance of this new readout, including the changes in the timing and gain properties of the analog component induced by changes in bias currents and voltages, as well as the factors that produce a maximum linearity range for the discriminator response. Levon got practical experience using the kind of electronics he studied in his undergraduate Modern Instrumentation Course.  You can read about his work in his Summer Report.  He worked in our lab under the supervision of Marina Artuso. Levon graduated from the SU Physics Program, and has gone on to graduate school in Physics at Syracuse University, studying reconstruction methods of SPECT images.   Gustavo Kertzscher   (Syracuse University) Gustavo worked on the BTEV Pixel Detector during the Summers of  2003 through 2005.  This detector was to be a major part of the BTEV Experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.  He characterized the behavior of several test structures embedded in a new Silicon wafer with the p-spray pixel prototypes that will be used in the upcoming Fermilab beam test.  He measured  I-V curves for a variety of test diodes and for a gate-controlled diode.  This was tricky, since there were a number of noise studies needed to figure out exactly how to to measure currents at the level of a few pA.  He also constructed a dark box for use in laser calibration of these wafers.  Gustavo got exposed to a large number of different aspects of research, and got a lot of hands-on experience.  He helped to build a Cosmic Ray Telescope, using scintillation counters and fast-pulse instrumentation.  He built a single photon light source as a part of his Honors Thesis at Syracuse University.  This work was partially funded by the Renee Crown Honors Program of Syracuse University.  He worked in our lab under the supervision of Marina Artuso.  Gustavo graduated with Honors from the Engineering Physics Program at SU, and has gone on to graduate school in Physics at McGill University.  His 2009 thesis was on the search for charged Higgs bosons at the DØ experiment at Fermilab.    Julia Tsitron   (Hunter College) Julia worked on the CLEO-c RICH Detector during the Summer of 2003.  This detector is a major part of the CLEO Experiment at the CESR Electron-Positron Accelerator at Cornell University.  She worked on aspects of the RICH electronics, monitoring and calibration.  She made useful analyses of the performance of the RICH electronics, as the experiment gears up for a new phase of operation called CLEO-c.  In particular, she studied the time development of electronic noise, tried a new calibration technique, and analyzed the pulse-height distributions used to measure gain over the entire RICH Detector.  Julia got a lot of experience in programming and hardware, and also learned the kinds of things we do in high energy physics experiments.  You can read about her work in her REU Report, and also in her final presentation.  Julia was stationed at Cornell, and worked with Marina Artuso and Bayar Dambasuren, under the guidance of the Cornell NSF REU program.   Julia went on to graduate school in biophysics at Rutgers University.     Jairo Velasco   (Syracuse University) Jairo worked on the BTEV RICH Detector during the Summer of 2003.  This detector was intended to be a major component of the BTEV Experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and will be built by the Syracuse University HEP Group.  He worked on the R&D for the novel photon detectors that we plan to employ in the RICH, and he made very sensitive measurements detecting single photons (single quanta of light) emitted from a LED (light-emitting diode).  Jairo got a lot of hardware experience this summer, learning about how detectors work and how to read them out using sophisticated electronics, digital oscilloscopes, and other advanced laboratory equipment.  You can read about his work in the presentation of his work made at the end of the summer.  Jairo was a sophomore in the SU Physics Department when he worked in our lab under the supervision of Steve Blusk.    Brian Gantz   (Syracuse University) Brian spent Summer 2003 completing work on his Engineering Physics Thesis.  His final project involved calibration and monitoring of the performance of the FPIX0 chip, the first iteration of the readout for BTEV Pixel Detector, which includes an analog output.  This was to be used in the upcoming beam test to study charge sharing properties of different pixel sensors.  You can ask him about his experience working with our group.  Brian has just received his B.S. in the Engineering Physics Program at SU, and worked in our lab under the supervision of Marina Artuso. Previously, Brian worked on the BTEV Pixel Project during the Summers of 2000 and 2001.  He studied the effect of the saturation at high fields of the electron mobility and its temperature dependence on the properties of the silicon pixel sensors that were to be used in the BTEV Experiment at Fermilab.  He refined the simulation program developed by the Syracuse group (hep-ex/0007054).  In addition, he helped in setting up the pixel sensor laboratory that will perform some key studies on the basic properties of the pixel detectors being developed for BTeV.  Brian very enthusiastically learned a lot of interesting and practical things about the physics of semiconductors, which is very good experience for electrical engineers.  You can read about his work in his REU Report.  He worked in our lab at SU under the supervision of Marina Artuso. Brian has gone on to graduate school in Physics at Syracuse University.   Michael Barnes   (University of Arkansas) Mike worked on the CLEO-III RICH Detector during the Summer of 2002.  This detector is a major part of the CLEO Experiment at the CESR Electron-Positron Accelerator at Cornell University.  He worked on the optimization of RICH electronics performance, by focusing on the development of monitoring tools to localize the sources of noise in the RICH Detector electronics.  In addition, he set up a test stand to help diagnose behavior of the RICH electronics and the data acquisition boards.  Mike learned a lot of software and basic analysis techniques, as well as gaining hardware experience with data acquisition.  You can read about his work in his REU Report.  Mike was stationed at Cornell, and worked with Marina Artuso and Bayar Dambasuren, under the Cornell NSF REU program.   Amanda Deisher   (University of Montana) Amanda worked on the CLEO-III RICH Detector during the Summer of 2001.  The RICH is one of the main components of the upgraded CLEO Experiment at the CESR Electron-Positron Accelerator at Cornell University.  She worked on three separate aspects of the RICH monitoring and calibration software, making extremely useful analyses for the optimization of the RICH electronics.  Amanda got a lot of experience, quickly learning several programming languages (all at once), and also learned about the operations of a big high energy physics experiment.  You can read about her work in her REU Report, and also in her final presentation.  You can also check out her RICH Project webpage.  Amanda was stationed at Cornell, and worked with Ray Mountain and Bayar Dambasuren, under the auspices of the Cornell NSF REU program.  Amanda has gone on to graduate school in Physics at the University of California, Berkeley.   Nick Bronn   (Georgia Tech) Nick worked on the CLEO-III RICH Detector during the Summer of 2000.  This detector is a major part of the recently-upgraded CLEO Experiment at the CESR Electron-Positron Accelerator at Cornell University.  He worked on the RICH monitoring software, providing an extremely valuable component for the diagnosis of a major problem in the performance of the RICH caused by a glitch in the data acquisition system.  Nick gained a lot of experience programming in c++ and java, as well as learning about the real operations of a big high energy physics experiment.  You can read about his efforts in his REU Report, and also in his presentations at the beginning and the end of the summer semester.  Nick was stationed at Cornell, and worked with Ray Mountain and Georg Viehhauser, under the auspices of the Cornell NSF REU program.   Narupon "Tor" Chattrapiban   (Syracuse University) Tor worked on the BTEV Experiment during the Spring and Summer of 2000.  He made very interesting measurements of the optical transmission of a new kind of material called "silica aerogel". This is a material that we planned to use as a Cherenkov radiator in the BTEV RICH Detector at Fermilab.  His work was very valuable in ascertaining the bulk and surface optical properties of aerogel, information which is critical for us to understand.  Tor gained experience in programming in the widely-used graphical language LabVIEW, and investigated phenomena which were complementary to classes he had taken and so was very interesting for him.  (He also learned a useful lesson not to trust everything on the Web.)  From this work, he produced a very nice Undergraduate Thesis.  You can read all about his work in excerpts from his Undergraduate Thesis, as well as from his Project Presentation.  Tor worked in our lab at SU under the supervision of Ray Mountain and Sheldon Stone. Previously, Tor also worked during the Summer of 1999, characterizing some properties of the readout electronics used in the CLEO-III RICH Detector with Marina Artuso.  He presented this work during the conference "A Celebration of Undergraduate Discovery" that took place at Syracuse on April 29, 2000.  Tor went on to graduate school in Physics at the University of Maryland.    Gregory Brons   (Syracuse University) Greg worked on the BTEV Pixel Project during the Spring of 2000, helping to set up the laboratory system to perform precision I-V measurements in semiconductor detectors.  He studied several test structures to determine the breakdown and punch-through properties of different silicon pixel detector and guard ring geometries.  His work is documented in his Research Thesis.  Greg worked in our lab as an Independent Study Course under the supervision of Marina Artuso.

RM, 2013-02-01.