Development of Calorimetric Low-Temperature Detectors for Application in Heavy Ion Physics
Final Report Abstract
The aim of the Emmy Noether group was to optimize and apply the relatively new concept of low-temperature detectors, so-called “microcalorimeters”, for experiments in heavy ion physics. These detectors determine the energy of an incoming particle not by the creation of charges, like conventional ionization detectors, but rather as the temperature change of an absorber, in which the particle deposits its energy. The detector concept provides advantages over conventional ionization detectors with respect to energy resolution, energy linearity, detection threshold and radiation hardness. In heavy ion physics, the application of such microcalorimeters had two objectives: The direct, energy-sensitive detection of heavy ions profits from the excellent energy resolution as well as the energy linearity and radiation hardness, not provided by any ionization detector in this combination. These excellent properties make them an ideal tool to investigate the energy loss of heavy ions in solids, namely the determination of Stopping Powers. These energy loss mechanisms are important for a variety of applications, i.e. material treatment or cancer therapy with heavy ions. However, the experimental data base, up to now, is limited by the performance of ionization detectors. The Emmy Noether group has, in cooperation with groups from the Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and the Institute of Physics of the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), for the first time applied microcalorimeters for Stopping Power experiments. These experiments were very successful: The data base was considerably extended towards low ion energies, error bars were considerably reduced. The observation of heavy ion “channeling” in polycrystalline metal foils was an unexpected result of these investigations. A new application of microcalorimeters, which was addressed in cooperation with the group from the Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and U. Köster from the Institute Laue-Langevin in Grenoble (France), was the investigation of the yield of heavy fission fragments in neutroninduced fission of uranium and plutonium. These yields are of importance for reactor physics and reactor safety, but also for the interpretation of reactor-based experiments on neutrino oscillations. Placed in a new, cryogen-free cryostat which was adapted for heavy ion microcalorimeters within the project, such detectors will provide easy-to-use and versatile tools for many experiments. In addition to the applications mentioned above, the combination with high-resolution time-of-flight detectors may provide a new method to determine the mass of reaction products in heavy ion reactions, if large detector arrays can be realized. This method is of particular importance for investigations in nuclear astrophysics, which are part of the experimental program of the collaboration Nuclear and Astrophysics (NUSTAR) at the future facility for antiproton and ion research FAIR in Darmstadt. The investigation of X-rays from highly-charged heavy ions provides an important tool to investigate effects of quantum electrodynamics in very high Coulomb fields. Such experiments profit mainly from the high energy resolution of microcalorimeters for X- rays. However, also the large dynamic range in combination with reasonable detection efficiency are an advantage. An experiment to determine the 1s Lamb Shift in hydrogen-like gold ions at the Experimental Storage Ring (ESR) at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research demonstrated the potential of our microcalorimeters for such investigations. To further improve the accuracy, an “intrinsic Doppler correction” by measuring the energy of Balmer transitions will be used. An improved experimental setup in a cryogen-free cryostat with a new detector array with larger solid angle, which will be equipped with a combination of low-energy and high-energy absorbers, was designed. A prototype was built and tested at the ESR in 2016. The final array is expected to be operational in 2018 for experiments at the upgraded GSI/FAIR facility “FAIR Phase-0”. Within the Stored Particles and Atoms Collaboration (SPARC), this detector will be combined with other highresolution detection systems.
Publications
-
„Calorimetric Low-Temperature Detectors for X-Ray Spectroscopy on Trapped Highly-Charged Heavy Ions“, Journal of Low Temperature Physics 167, 765 (2012)
Kraft-Bermuth, S.; Andrianov, V.; Bleile, A.; Echler, A.; Egelhof, P.; Ilieva, S.; Kilbourne, C.; McCammon, D. & Zhang, L.
-
High-precision X-ray spectroscopy of highly charged ions with microcalorimeters, Physica Scripta T156, 014022 (2013)
Kraft-Bermuth, S.; Andrianov, V.; Bleile, A.; Echler, A.; Egelhof, P.; Grabitz, P.; Ilieva, S.; Kilbourne, C.; Kiselev, O.; Mccammon, D. & Meier, J.
-
Ion the Prize, International Innovation 119, 59 (2013)
S. Kraft-Bermuth
-
Application of Calorimetric Low Temperature Detectors (CLTDs) for precise stopping power measurements of heavy ions in matter, Journal of Low Temperature Physics 176, 1033 (2014)
Echler, A.; Egelhof, P.; Grabitz, P.; Kettunen, H.; Kraft-Bermuth, S.; Laitinen, M.; Müller, K.; Rossi, M.; Trzaska, W.H. & Virtanen, A.
-
Precise determination of the 1s Lamb Shift in hydrogenlike heavy ions at the ESR storage ring using microcalorimeters, Physica Scripta T 166, 014028 (2015)
Kraft-Bermuth, S.; Andrianov, V.; Bleile, A.; Echler, A.; Egelhof, P.; Grabitz, P.; Ilieva, S.; Kiselev, O.; Kilbourne, C.; Mccammon, D.; Meier, J. P. & Scholz, P.
-
Determination of the Nuclear Charge Distribution of Fission Fragments from 235U(nth,f)with Calorimetric Low Temperature Detectors, Journal of Low Temperature Physics 184, 944 (2016)
Grabitz, P.; Andrianov, V.; Bishop, S.; Blanc, A.; Dubey, S.; Echler, A.; Egelhof, P.; Faust, H.; Gönnenwein, F.; Gomez-Guzman, J. M.; Köster, U.; Kraft-Bermuth, S.; Mutterer, M.; Scholz, P. & Stolte, S.
-
Systematic Vibration Studies on a Cryogen-free 3He/4He Dilution Refrigerator, Journal of Low Temperature Physics 184, 576 (2016)
Scholz, P. A.; Kraft-Bermuth, S. & Andrianov, V.
-
Determination of electronic stopping powers of 0.05-1 MeV/u 131Xe ions in C, Ni- and Au-Absorbers with calorimetric low temperature detectors, Nuclear Instruments and Methods B 391, 38 (2017)
Echler, A.; Egelhof, P.; Grabitz, P.; Kettunen, H.; Kraft-Bermuth, S.; Laitinen, M.; Müller, K.; Rossi, M.; Trzaska, W.H. & Virtanen, A.
-
Precise determination of the 1s Lamb Shift in hydrogenlike lead and gold ions using microcalorimeters, Journal of Physics B 50, 055603 (2017)
Kraft-Bermuth, S.; Andrianov, V.; Bleile, A.; Echler, A.; Egelhof, P.; Grabitz, P.; Ilieva, S.; Kiselev, O.; Kilbourne, C.; Mccammon, D.; Meier, J. P. & Scholz, P.
-
Precise determination of the Lyman-α1 transition energy in hydrogen-like gold ions with microcalorimeters, Journal of Low Temperature Physics 176, 1002 (2014)
Kraft-Bermuth, S.; Andrianov, V.; Bleile, A.; Echler, A.; Egelhof, P.; Grabitz, P.; Ilieva, S.; Kiselev, O.; Kilbourne, C.; Mccammon, D.; Meier, J. P. & Scholz, P.
