Manufacturing of Large and Highly Transparent Aerogel Tiles with Refraction Indices up to 1.1 for

Cherenkov Detectors

DOE SBIR Phase II Program Start Date – 06/19/10Grant No. DE-SC0004290 End Date – 08/14/13

Principal Investigator: Redouane Begag

Program Manager: Shannon WhiteProgram Manager: Shannon White

Contributing Authors: Ricardo Alarcon (ASU), David Blyth (ASU)

DOE Program Manager: Manouchehr Farkhondeh

SBIR RIGHTS NOTICE (Mar 1994)These SBIR data are furnished with SBIR rights under Award No. DE-SC0004290. For a period of 4 years after acceptance of all items to be delivered under this contract, the Government agrees to use these data for Government purposes only, and they shall not be disclosed outside the Government (including disclosure for procurement purposes) during such period without permission of the Contractor, except that, subject to the foregoing use and disclosure prohibitions, such data may be disclosed for use by support Contractors. After the aforesaid 4-year period the Government has a royalty-free license to use, and to authorize others to use on its behalf, these data for Government purposes, but is relieved of all disclosure prohibitions and assumes no liability for unauthorized use of these data by third parties. This Notice shall be affi ed to an reprod ctions of these data in hole or in partshall be affixed to any reproductions of these data, in whole or in part.

Agenda

• Introduction to Aspen Aerogels, Inc.

• Phase II Program OverviewPhase II Program Overview

• Phase II Progress

– Aerogel Optical Property Optimization

Aerogel Performance– Aerogel Performance

– Aerogel Production Capabilities

• Future work

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Aspen Aerogels, Inc.

• Founded in 2001 • Privately owned• 160 Employees• Locations

– Northborough, MA • (headquarters, R&D laboratories)

– East Providence, RI • (manufacturing facility)

• Current Capacity > 50 million sq.ft./yr.• World’s leading manufacturer of flexible

aerogel blankets• ISO 9001-2000 (BVQi certified)

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Aerogels in the MainstreamT A i ti d l f l b i it tTwo Aspen innovations moved aerogels from lab curiosity to high-volume industrial product:

1. Aspen’s supercritical CO2 extraction process reduces cycle time from days to hoursy

2. Casting the wet gel into a fibrous batting provides mechanical integrity

Aerogel Monolith

Low temp High temp-273ºC 650ºC

®®

g

Cryogel®Cryogel® PyrogelPyrogel®®SpaceloftSpaceloft®®

Aerogel Blankets

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Phase II Program OverviewDescription and ObjectivesDescription and Objectives

- Domestically produce an array of low cost, high quality Cherenkov detectors with wide availability of index of refractions ranging y g gfrom 1.010 to 1.1, and high optical transmittance.

- Scale up the size of the tiles to 12” x 12” •Transmittance 83% @ 400 nmp(4/5” thick). • Refractive Index ~ 1.010 – 1.1

Approach- Optimization of transparency and refractive

Schedule and Deliverables Annual Report and Final Reportindex

- Evaluate performance of large aerogel tiles (ASU)

- Process design and verification to scale up

Annual Report and Final Report Twenty-four (24) Month Schedule

Potential DOE ApplicationsProcess design and verification to scale up transparent aerogel production

Subcontractors/PartnersArizona State University (ASU)

Upgrade of Hall C&D, Jefferson Lab.Upgrade CEBAFUpgrade RICH 2

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Arizona State University (ASU)

Background and Problem Statement

Since the early 1980's, silica aerogels have been widely used as a radiator for Cherenkov Detectors

Aerogels for Cherenkov radiators have several drawbacks, such as:as:

medium to low light transmission in the UV-visible wavelength region

difficult to fabricate in large panels

not always hydrophobic

extremely fragile

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Phase II Progress

Optimization of transparency & refractive index

Sol Gel optimization using Design Of Experiment method

Transmittance:

44400

Cd

Ld

AeAeIT SC

(Hunt Equation)

(1)

o

AeAeI

T

Refractive Index (1):

nn sinarcsinsinarcsin

n

1. A.R. Buzykaev, A.F. Danilyuk, S.F. Ganzhur, E.A. Kravchenko, A.P. Onuchin, Nucl. Instr. Methods in Physics Research A 433 (1999) 396) 400

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Physics Research A 433 (1999) 396) 400

Phase II Progress Optimization of transparency & refractive index

Sample # ID Thick. (cm) C(m4/cm) A Lsc (cm) n % T (@ 400 nm)

RB0.05-17 1.7 0.00484 1.00 5.3 1.013 83.1

Matsushita(SP-20) 1.0 0.00627 0.94 4.1 1.026 78.7

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Phase II Progress O ti i ti f t & f ti i dOptimization of transparency & refractive index

High refractive index (1.088) samples show relatively low transmittance t 400at 400 nm.

the clarity coefficient (C) increases (thus, low transmittance) as the refractive index increases, too.

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Phase II Progress

Aspen Aerogels PerformanceAspen Aerogels Performance

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Electron test beam at DESY

Threshold Cherenkov counter built to use a variety of aerogel tiles

Placed on a 2 GeV electron beam at DESY facility to test Aspen tiles and

Matsushita Electric Works tiles

Electron beam allows for definitive light-yield/efficiency measurement in

the limit of very fast particlesthe limit of very fast particles

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Cherenkov test counter

Designed to be highly uniform, with diffusely reflective y

internal surfaces

if i h l ll fUniformity helps to allow for comparable results between

batches of aerogel

Two large (5") photomultiplier tubes used to produce a signal

proportional to amount of Cherenkov light

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Experimental setup

Counter mounted to x-y table to precisely position beam through aerogel

Collimated beam (blue) ~1 cm idwide

Two-scintillator trigger used (green), approx. 10 m apart, y(green), approx. 10 m apart, with counter in-between

Downstream scintillator is ~2

yx

cm wide, eliminating divergent paths

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Aerogel Key Parameters

Batches ordered from lowest index of refraction to highest (1.017 - 1.069)

B1 and SP-20 are closely comparable with mean pindices 1.019 (5) and 1.020 (6) respectively

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Direct Comparison

Pulse height spectrum shows distribution of

l f PMTpulses from PMTs

Phase II Batch 1 yieldsPhase II Batch 1 yields more measurable light than MEW SP-20.

With this comes greater efficiency in the same application

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Test Beam Results

Raw photoelectron yields are somewhat comparable, but do

t i t inot give a concrete comparison

Figure of merit uses MC to remove non-goodness related factors (geometry and refractive index)

Higher figures of merit indicate more favorable

ti l ti f thoptical properties of the aerogel

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Phase II Progress

A ’ A l P d i C bili iAspen’s Aerogel Production Capabilities

Different sizes (4” x 4”, 8” x 8”, and 12” x 12”)and thicknesses up to 4/5” can be produced atAspenAspen.

Special molds are used to assure high physicalquality aerogel materials (no scratches, noquality aerogel materials (no scratches, nomeniscus, parallel surfaces, etc.).

Unique drying process developed by AspenAerogels assures a high yield of crack freeaerogel tiles.

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Future Work

Define the optimum sol-gel, and supercritical drying conditions to produce high quality and high yield crack-free aerogel tiles (> 8 x 8 inch2)

Define and demonstrate process of making 12 x 12 inch2 tiles using large capacity vessel (120 liter system).

Evaluate the refractive index and complete testing of new batches with Evaluate the refractive index and complete testing of new batches with cosmic rays at ASU

Design and build a prototype detector capable of doing ring imaging with the best suitable Aspen aerogel tiles.

A i i i t b th j t t l til li f th Aspen is aiming to be the major transparent aerogel tile supplier for the high energy physics community.

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Principal InvestigatorRedouane Begag– 508‐466‐3124rbegag@aerogel.com

Program ManagerShannon White – 508‐691‐1175swhite@aerogel.com@ g

Thank You

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