Instrumentation Development for

Optical Tracking in Water and

Liquid Scintillator Detectors

Andrey ElaginUniversity of Chicago

DLNP, JINR, Dubna, October 13, 2017

Outline

• Ultra-fast timing frontier

• Optical tracking in water

• Optical tracking in liquid scintillator

• Potential application for 0nbb-decay search

• Large-Area Picosecond Photo-Detectors

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Preface:• In 1 ns light travels 30cm; 1 ns is 1000 ps; 1ps -> 300 microns• Light is slow in (sub) picosecond domain• Speed of light in matter depends on the wavelength

e.g. in a typical scintillator: v(370 nm) = 0.191 m/nsv( 600 nm) = 0.203 m/ns

~2 ns difference over 6.5m distance(that’s a lot of picoseconds)

e, mu, pi, K, p,…

Cherenkov photons

10-20 micron pore

Amplification section: Gain-bandwidth, Signal-to-Noise, Power, Cost

Sub-Picosecond Timing Pre-requisites

1) Fast source (e.g. prompt Cherenkov light)2) Psec-level pixel size (e.g. MCP pores)3) High gain (e.g. MgO ALD MCPs give >107)4) Low noise

Schematic of an MCP-based Photo-Detector

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Getting to 100 fs won’t be that easy but it’s a nice goal to have

2nd Chicago Photocathode

Workshop

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LAPPDTM

Micro-Capillary Arrays by Incom Inc.

Material: borofloat glass Area: 8x8” Thickness: 1.2mm Pore size: 20 mm

Open area: 60-74%

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD)- J.Elam and A.Mane at Argonne

(process is now licensed to Incom Inc.)- Arradiance Inc. (independently)

Micro-Channel Plates (MCPs)

20x20 cm2

~15mm

Large-Area Picosecond Photo-Detector

Single PE time resolution <50ps

LAPPDTM is being commercialized by Incom Inc. 5

LAPPD Prototype Testing ResultsSingle PE resolution

RSI 84, 061301 (2013), NIMA 732, (2013) 392

NIMA 795, (2015) 1See arXiv:1603.01843

for a complete LAPPD bibliography

Demonstrated characteristics:single PE timing ~50psmulti PE timing ~35 ps

differential timing ~5 psposition resolution < 1 mm

gain >107

Reconstruction of the laser beam footprint

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LAPPD Electronics at Chicago

Delay-line anode

- 1.6 GHz bandwidth

- number of channels

scales linearly with area

PSEC-4 ASIC chip

- 6-channel, 1.5 GHz, 10-15 GS/s

30-Channel ACDC Card (5 PSEC-4) Central Card

(4-ACDC;120ch) 7

NIM 711 (2013) 124

NIM 735 (2014) 452

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• 60-channel LAPPD prototype at the ANL Laser Lab• 180-channel self-triggered Optical TPC at Fermilab• Central card controls several front end boards• New central cards by Mircea Bogdan handles 1920 channels

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Multichannel Systems

(T1, X1, Y1, Z)

(T2, X2, Y2, Z )

Vertex (e.g. p0->gg)

Tv, Xv, Yv, Zv

Detector Plane

One can reconstruct the vertex from the times and positions- 3D reconstruction

E.g. rare Kaon decays (KOTO at JPARC): background rejection by reconstructing p0 vertex space point (beat combinatorics background)

Vertexing Using Arrival 4D-points

Need 1ps

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CDF top quark event

Colliders

• identify the quark content of charged particles• assign tracks and photons to vertices

Need 1ps

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Suggestion to use LAPPD’s for DUSEL and the name (OTPC) due to Howard Nicholson

Optical Time Projection Chamber

Need < 100 ps

• Like a TPC but drifts photons instead of electrons • Exploits precise location and time for each detected photon• Would allow track /vertex reconstruction in large liquid counters

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• It doesn’t have to be water (use prompt Cherenkov light that arrives early )• In fact, for long tracks optical tracking should also work using just scintillation

Cherenkov vs Scintillation Light

• Prompt emission

• Directional for each charged track segment

• Higher energy threshold

• Less abundant compared to scintillation light

• Conventionally used for particle ID, vertexing and “coarse” energy measurements

• Slow emission

• Isotropic for each charged track segment

• Very low energy threshold

• Abundant: usually completely overshadow Cherenkov light

• Conventionally used forvertexing and “precision” energy measurements

Combining the two should make for a very powerful detectorVery active field:JINST 7 (2012) P07010; PRD87 (2013) 071301; JINST 9 (2014) 06012; arXiv:1409.5864; NIMA 830 (2016) 303; NIMA 849 (2017) 102; PRC95 (2017) 055801; arXiv:1610.02011Current status: need fast timing and slow scintillators

Cherenkov Scintillation

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Large Directional Liquid Scintillator

• Large scintillator detectors and large water-Cherenkov detectors have been very effective in measuring neutrinoproperties

• Combining the two technologies may allow expandedphysics reach of the next generation large neutrino experiments

• Physics Program of THEIA:- Neutrinoless double beta decay- Solar neutrinos- Geo-neutrinos- Supernova burst neutrinos & DSNB- Nucleon decay- Long-baseline physics (mass hierarchy, CP-violation)- Unexpected surprises

A concept drawingof the THEIA detector

Cherenkov light provides directionality (background suppression)Scintillation light provides good energy measurements

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Several design options exist

Water

Direct Cherenkov light (yellow)

Photonis MCPs and Chicago striplines/PSEC4

Flat mirrors

1 foot/1000 psec muon

Reflected Cherenkov light (green)

780 psec later

Eric Oberla’s Ph.D thesis

Eric Oberla’s Optical TPC

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Water

Flat mirrors

Reflected Cherenkov light arrives 780 psec later depending on position and angle

Photonis MCPs and Chicago striplines/PSEC4

Beam’s Eye View of the OTPC

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Eric Oberla’s Ph.D thesis

OTPC at Fermilab Test Beam

5 cm

Five Photonis Planacons17

Eric Oberla’s Ph.D thesis

• 60 mrad angular resolution over a lever arm of 40cm• 1.5 cm spatial resolution (radiation length of H2O is 40cm)• See 780 psec separation of direct and mirror-reflected light• More details in Nucl. Instr. Meth. A814, pp19-32 April 1 (2016)

2 n

se

c

OTPC Results

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Eric Oberla’s Ph.D thesis

A Note on Mirrors and the Optical TPCE. Oberla

E. Angelico

Simulation of reflection points of 20 photons inside a silvered sphere, color-coded by time

• Photo-cathode coverage is expensive• Mirrors may help to reduce cost of

very large detectors

“Adding psec-resolution changes the space in which considerations of Liouville’s Theorem operates from 3-dimensional to 4-dimensional. In analogy with accelerator physics, we can exchange transverse emittance to longitudinal emittance.

There may be interesting and clever ways to exploit this in large water/scint Cherenkov counters” -H. Frisch

Homage to T. Ypsilantis

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Drawing from Sebastian Lorenz presentation

3D Optical Tracking

Reconstruction algorithms work with Cherenkov or scintillation light• B. Wonsak et al. Original motivation: LENA scintillator detector• M. Wetstein et al. Original motivation: water-Cherenkov LBNE detector

Need:• One reference point (space and time)• Single photon hit times

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t

PMT timing PDF – Norm (0, 1 ns)

and three decay components:

4.6 ns [71%],

18 ns [22%] and

156 ns [7%]

For each photon hit:• Time defines drop-like surface• Gets smeared with time profile

(scintillation & PMT-timing)

• Weighted due to spatial constraints (acceptance, optical properties, light concentrator, …)

→ spatial p.d.f. for photon emission points

3D Optical Tracking using ScintillationB. Wonsak et al.

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TTS = 1 ns

3D Optical Tracking using Scintillation

Decreased cell size

Decreased cell size

• Add up all signals• Divide result by local detection efficiency

→ Number density of emitted photons

• Use knowledge that all signals belong to same topology to 'connect' their information→ Use prior results to re-evaluate p.d.f. of each signal

3 GeV muon simulated in LENA

B. Wonsak et al.

Access to dE/dx

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3D Optical Tracking using ScintillationCurrent Status (slide by S. Lorenz)

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Liquid Scintillator Detectors

SNO+: 12 m diameter KamLAND-Zen: 13 m diameter

• Both detectors are searching for neutrinoless double beta decay• Surrounded by slow PMTs for light collection to measure energy

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Double Beta Decay

Electrons energy

only possible if

the neutrino

is its own

antiparticle

It overlaps with 0nbb-decay energy

deposition and therefore this is

irreducible background without

event topology reconstruction

(need two-track vs one-track discriminant)

nn

e- e-

2nbb

0nbb

Background:Electron scattering of neutrinoscoming from 8B-decays in the sun

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Can We See Event Topology in a LS Detector?

R=6.5m

Simulation of a 0nbb event(selected event with large angle between electrons)

2014 JINST 9 P06012

PE arrival times, TTS=100 ps

Fast (arrives early) and directional• directionality reconstruction• event topology reconstruction (e.g., 2-track vs 1-track) 26

• Distinct two-track topology withpreference to be “back-to-back”

• Most of electrons are above Cherenkov threshold

Idealized event displays: no multiple scattering, all light after QE=30% cut

S0

S1

S2

S3

Rotation invariant power spectrum

Spherical harmonics analysis

0nbb-decay 8B eventCherenkov PEs

Scintillation PEs

S power spectrum

Early Light Topology

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Early Light Topology

Cherenkov PEs

Scintillation PEs

S0

S1

S2 S

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Early PE: 0nbb-decay Early PE: 8B event

S power spectrum

Realistic event displays: early PEs only, KamLAND PMTs QE: Che~12%, Sci~23%

Key parameters determining

separation of 0nbb-decay from 8B

Scintillator properties

(narrow spectrum, slow rise time)

Photo-detector properties

(fast, large-area, high QE, red-sensitive)

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NIMA 849 (2017) 102

2-Track vs 1-Track Event Topology

Multipole moment l=0 Multipole moment l=1

• Spherical harmonics analysis is rather simple, but it doesn’t use all available information

• Advanced machine learning techniques looking at 4-vectors of each photon hit should work better (probably makes more sense with a little more progresson the instrumentation front)

S0 S1

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Topology reconstruction of MeV events could help against otherbackgrounds in searches for 0nbb-decay (e.g., 10C, 2.6MeV gammas)

0nbb vs 8B

Vertex res 5cm, events within R<3mScintillation rise time 1 ns

Vertex res 5cm, events within R<3mScintillation rise time 5 ns

Background rejection factor = 2 @ 70% signal efficiency

Background rejection factor = 3 @ 70% signal efficiency

For details see NIM A849 (2017) 102

Other backgrounds (gammas, alphas, 10C, etc) also have distinct topologiesEvent reconstruction in liquid scintillator would enable new opportunities

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Illustration from a presentationby Gabriel Orebi Gann

THEIA

Plot credit: Andy Mastbaum

Broad detector R&D program to realize THEIA

• 50kt detector• 50% reduction of 8B• 0.5% natTe loading • 50t 130Te after fiducial cuts• 15 meV after 10 years

Multipurpose detector(including neutrino oscillation physics)

Potential for 0nbb-decay search

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NuDot - Directional Liquid Scintillator

140 2” fast PMTs for timing

72 10” regular PMTs mounted onWinston Cones for energy resolution

Under construction at MIT, led by L. Winslow

2.2 m

R&D Towards Large Scale Detector for 0nbb-decay

Goals• Demonstrate directionality and event

topology reconstruction using che/sciseparation by fast timing- ideally by measuring 2nbb-decay

• Study scintillators, including quantum dots• Upgrade 10” PMTs with LAPPDs

Following up on the ideas discussed in JINST 7 P07010 and JINST 9 06012

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FlatDot Demonstration

15 cm Quartz Vial

• Intermediate step towards 1m3 spherical NuDot- e.g. detection of Cherenkov “rings” from low energy

electrons using a tagged Compton source• Testing different scintillator cocktails

(including quantum dots)• Readout testing

2” PMTs with TTS=300ps

Note: there is an independent effort on Che/Sci light separation - the CHESS experiment at Berkeley by G. Orebi Gann et al., aXiv:1610.02011 and 1610.02029

Time (ns)

Raw pulses (the top two channels are the trigger)

Event display after corrections

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LAPPDTM Development

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Incom Inc. (Charlton, MA) is working on making LAPPDTM commercially available

Supported by DOE via SBIR grant

• April 2014 - DOE funding to create infrastructure and demonstrate a pathway towards pilot production

• November 2015 – Facility operational• December 2015 – Commissioning trial initiated• October 2016 – First Sealed Tile with Bialkali Photocathode• Now transitioning from “commissioning” to “exploitation” stage

LAPPDTM @ Incom Inc.

Slide courtesy of Incom Inc. 35

Goal of the R&D Effort at UChicago

Affordable large-area many-pixel photo-detector systems

with picosecond time resolution

LAPPD module 20x20 cm2 Example of a Super Module

UChicago goal is to develop alternative high volume, scalable, low cost processing options

(in close collaboration with Incom Inc.)

We are exploring if an In-Situ process (without vacuum transfer) can be inexpensive and easier to scale for a very high volume production

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Production rate of 50 LAPPDs/week would

cover 100m2 in one year

Can We Make LAPPDs in Batches Like PMTs?

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In-Situ Assembly StrategySimplify the assembly process by avoiding vacuum transfer:

make photo-cathode after the top seal(PMT-like batch production)

Step 1: pre-deposit Sb on the top window prior to assemblyStep 2: pre-assemble MCP stack in the tile-baseStep 3: do top seal and bake in the same heat cycle

using dual vacuum systemStep 4: bring alkali vapors inside the tile to make photo-cathodeStep 5: flame seal the glass tube or crimp the copper tube

UChicago processing chamber

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In-Situ LAPPD Fabrication

UChicago PSEC Lab

Simplify the assembly process by avoiding vacuum transfer:make photo-cathode after the top seal

(PMT-like batch production)

Heat only the tilenot the vacuum vessel

Intended for parallelization

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In-Situ Assembly Facility UChicago

Looking forward towards transferring the in-situ process to industry

The idea is to achieve volume production by operating many small-sizevacuum processing chambers at the same time

UChicago PSEC Lab

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First Signals from an In-Situ LAPPD

Near side: reflection from unterminated far end

Far side: reflection is superimposed on prompt

Source

far sidenear side

Source

Readout(50-Ohm transmission line)

(Sb cathode)

Readout(50-Ohm transmission line)

The tile is accessible for QC before photo-cathode shot This is helpful for the production yield

April, 2016

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First Sealed In-Situ Glass LAPPDAugust 18, 2016

Flame seal by J.Gregar, Argonne

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(Cs-Sb photo-cathode)

Ceramic Gen-II LAPPD

Tab for singleHV connection

Indium sealperimeter

Resistive buttons

January, 2017

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Internal HV Divider

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Reliable hermetic seal over a 90-cm long perimeterIndium Solder Flat Seal Recipe

Input:

• Two glass parts with flat contact surfaces

Process:

• Coat 200 nm of NiCr and 200 nm of Cu

on each contact surface (adapted from

seals by O.Siegmund at SSL UC Berkeley)

• Make a sandwich with indium wire

• Bake in vacuum at 250-300C for 24hrs

Key features:

• A good compression over the entire perimeter

is needed to compensate for non-flatness and

to ensure a good contact

• In good seals indium penetrates through entire

NiCr layer (Cu always “dissolves”)

glass window(8.66x8.66”)

glass frame(sidewall)

Sealed LAPPD tile

This recipe is now understood

It works well over large perimetersMetallization and compression are critical

Indium Solder Flat Seal Recipe

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Metallurgy of the SealModerate temperatures and short exposure time:

• A thin layer of copper quickly dissolves in molten indium

• Indium diffuses into the NiCr layer

Depth profile XPS

The ion etch number is a measure for the depth of each XPS run

Layer depth (uncalibrated)

XPS access courtesy ofJ. Kurley and A. Filatov at UChicago

Glass with NiCr-Cu metallization exposed to InBi at ~100C for <1hrs

(it seals at these conditions)

InBi was scraped when still above melting (72C)

Low melting InBi alloy allows to explore temperaturesbelow melting of pure In (157C)

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Metallurgy of a Good SealHigher temperatures and longer exposure time

• Indium penetrates through entire NiCr layer

XPS of the glass side of the interface

XPS data courtesy of A. Filatov at UChicago

Cut and scrape at the metal-glass interface

Inte

ns

ity (

a.u

.)

900 800 700 600

Ni(2p)Cr(2p)

control surface

scraped region

In(3p)

Binding energy, eV

Glass with NiCr-Cu metallization bonded by pure In at ~350C for 24hrs

(it seals at these conditions)

We now reliably seal at 250-300C for 12-24hrs 47

Indium seal recipes exist for a long time

PLANACONTM

(MCP-PMT by Photonis)

5 cm

Make larger photo-detectors

Our recipe scales well to large perimeter

Simplify the assembly process

Our recipe is compatible with PMT-like batch

production

Why do we need another indium seal recipe?

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Gen-II LAPPD

10 nm NiCr ground layer insideis capacitively coupled

to an outside 50 Ohm RF anode

NiCr-Cu electrodingfor the top seal

Ground pins

Two tubulation portsfor the in-situ PC synthesis

(improved gas flow)

Monolithic ceramic body

• Robust ceramic body• Anode is not a part of

the vacuum package• Enables fabrication

of a generic tile fordifferent applications

• Compatible with in-situ and vacuum transfer assembly processes

Joint effort with Incom Inc. via DOE SBIR 49

Gen-II LAPPD: “inside-out” anode

• Custom anode is outside• Capacitively coupled • Compatible with high rate

applications

For details see NIMA 846 (2016) 75

Chose yourown readout

pattern

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In-Situ LAPPD: work in progress

LAPPD batch production milestones:• Developed a robust metallurgy scheme for hermetic packaging• Demonstrated Cs transport from a source outside of the detector

package to the entire 20x20 cm2 window surface in the presenceof full size MCPs (we did made Cs-Sb photo-cathode)

• Showed that MCP initial resistance can be recovered after Cs-ation(MCPs are NOT permanently damaged or changed)

What’s next?51

10/12/2017 15

We’ve just got a new lab

Going Forward at Full Speed

We’ve got 2nd processing chamber(parallelization!)

We are getting lots of components

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Take Away Message

Light is slow if measured in picoseconds

Lots of information can be recoveredby ‘drifting photons’ to a highly segmented

photo-detector

Detecting Cherenkov light in a liquid scintillator detector is very attractive

Large-Area Picosecond Photo-Detectorsare being developed

We really need lots of LAPPDs!(batch high volume production)

Evan Angelico, AE, Henry Frisch,

Rich Northrop, Carla Pilcher, Eric Spieglan

plus Eric Oberla and Mircea Bogdan on electronics

plus 12 high school and undergrad students last summer

UChicago PSEC Team

Thank you!

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Back-up

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PSEC4

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OTPC

In-Situ Cathode Synthesis Trials in Progress

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Evan (FIB/SEM) and Andrey (SEM)

E.g. The black powder from cesiating excess indiumSealing surface on top of sidewall

Black powder NiCr anode

(New windows will have no exposed

Cu- few weeks away)

Analysis showing it’s a CsIncompound

Low-Dose Whole-Body PET CameraChin-Tu Chen, Henry Frisch, Chien-Min Kao, and Heejong Kim

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Simulation and reconstruction work by Carla Grosso-Pilcher

Low-Dose Whole-Body PET Camera

water-based liquid scintillator

photo-detector planes

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Time resolution on 2 ends of 8”-anode

strip vs (S/N)-1 in psec (pair of 8” MCP’s)

< 6 psec

Laser spot size

Differential Time Resolution

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Does the time resolution go as 1/N or 1/root-N photo-electrons?Hypothesis:• In an MCP-PMT the time jitter is dominated by the 1st strike:

path length to the 1st strike varies

• Smaller pores, increased bias angle are better

• “IF gain is such that a single photon shower makes the pulse (e.g. 107), time jitter is set by the probability that NO photon has arrived in interval dt” - H. FrischThis assumes that one fits the waveform to determine pulse T0

E.g. if 50 photoelectrons (from Cherenkov light in a window) arrive within 50 psec, the probability that one goes for T psec with NO photon making a first strike goes as e-T

=> a 1/N dependence

Large-signal Limit Dependence

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Can We Detect Cherenkov Light?

Scintillation emission is slower

Longer wavelengths travel faster

Cherenkov light arrives earlier

Scintillation light is more intense and

Cherenkov light is usually lost in liquid

scintillator detectors e-

370 nm 0.191 m/ns600 nm 0.203 m/ns

~2 ns difference over 6.5m distance

Scintillation model based on KamLAND-Zen simulation

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Directionality of Early Photons

C.Aberle, A.Elagin, H.Frisch,

M.Wetstein, L.Winslow

2014 JINST 9 P06012

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½ Q (116Cd) =1.4 MeV ½ Q (48Ca) =2.1 MeV

Light yield: Cherenkov vs scintillation

What About Lower Energies?

0nbb vs 8B

Vertex res 5cm, events within R<3mSci rise time 1 ns

Ioverlap = 0.79

0nbb vs 8B

Vertex res 5cm, events within R<3mSci rise time 5 ns

Ioverlap = 0.64

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Off-Center Events

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0nbb-decay vs 10Ctwo-track vs a “complicated” topology

10C decay chain:

• 10C final state consist of a positron and gamma(e+ also gives 2x0.511MeV gammas after loosing energy to scintillation)

• Positron has lower kinetic energy than 0nbb electrons• Positron scintillates over shorter distance from primary vertex• Gammas can travel far from the primary vertex

10C vs 0nbb-decay: photons arrival time profile

Diagram by Jon Ouellet

10C background can be large at a shallow detector depth

TTS=100 ps

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0nbb-decay vs 10CPhotons count in early light sample

Time profile for events uniformlydistributed within the fiducial volume, R<3m

Vertex resolution of 3cm is assumed

Spherical harmonics help here too

Disclaimer: there are other handles on 10C that are already in use (e.g., muon tag, secondary vertices). Actual improvement in separation power may vary.

TTS=100 ps

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