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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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