DETECTOR DEVELOPMENT FOR PARTICLE AND NUCLEAR PHYSICS Groups based in Coimbra ~20 researchers / 3 PhD Students / 6 MSc students supported by 10 Engineers&Technicians Detector and Radiation Physics - Long term lines or research Gas Scintillation Proportional Chambers >40 years Liquid / Double Phase Xe Detectors >20 years Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) >15 years Gaseous Thermal-Neutron Detectors >10 years Historical basis of the Coimbra branch of LIP, nowadays internationally known the expertise in Detectors and Radiation Physics; The group counts … ~ The activities are mainly organised in long term research lines – in one case older than LIP ! …

Gaseous Xe & admixtures + Monte-Carlo techniques STATUS Expertise on noble gas scintillation and Monte Carlo techniques - Ion drift vel. - HP-Xe - GSPC - Ion accel. X-ray polarimetry 4 5 2 1,3  Ongoing work Physics - Ion drift velocities: RD51, NEXT - Gas scintillation measurements (incl. primary scint in Xe/TMA): NEXT Technology - HP-Xenon GSPC for gamma detection (QREN) Important drift and scintillation properties of some gas mixtures are here and now at reach !

Electronic and optical properties of liquid xenon (LXe) as detector medium STATUS Over 20 years experience of R&D on LXe detectors opened the way to leading collaborations in DARK MATTER search (ZEPLIN, LUX) GOAL Profit from expertise to further understand basic processes relevant to detectors - e.g. detection of single electrons extracted from liquid into gas  Ongoing work TPB exposed to LXe Reference sample APDs readout of GEMs Work under way on L.Xe properties NEXT STEPS Technology - Explore organic WLS materials, Si-PMTs & microstructures Physics - Clarify particle track structure in LXe - Study microscopic instabilities of the LXe surface

THERMAL NEUTRON IMAGING  This LIP team has previously proposed, prototyped and tested the 3He based detector adopted by EU NMI3 (FP6 and FP7 projects) !  3He shortage alternatives badly needed (ESS)  LIP will build and validate 10B4C coated multi-gap RPCs as position sensitive thermal neutron detectors (SINE2020) Fisrt steps towars boron carbide coating… B4C layers deposited by DC sputtering Work already under way and previous expertise  LIP team well positioned in the long run

High count-rate RPCs RPCs can also be found in AUGER, HADES, RD51, Very interesting theme in general (fundamental limit of RPCs) Considerable work already done Relevant for the LHC upgrade (AIDA2020) RPCs can also be found in AUGER, HADES, RD51, Biomedical applications Important drift and scintillation properties of some gas mixtures are here and now at reach ! [Lopes 2005] 5

A gas detector for on-axis STIM tomography New gas ionization detector (with ITN/IST-UL) Motivation: - indestructible detector (no radiation damage) - energy resolution better than Si for the heavier ions ITN microprobe beam line with the tailored gas ionization detector attached STIM-T Density map of a hair Linear scale from zero (black) to the highest density (white). 2D STIM 56×56 m2 grid The successful alternative detector for STIM tomography (or STIM-T) : Scanning Transmission Ion Micro-Tomography (~MeV p, He, etc …) Si PIN detector … costly & perishable New gas ionization detector

RPCs (all projects, only detector-related) Statistics 2008-15 Group Publications PhD Theses Finished/ongoing Funded projects Nacional/EU Gaseous Xe 20 3/3 4 LXe (exc. LUX/ZEPLIN) 6 0/1 0/0 Neutron Imaging 10 3/2 RPCs (all projects, only detector-related) 36 3/0 14/2

LIP_Coimbra – Main detector laboratory (~120 m2) 3  2 2 1 4 The main laboratory with various set-ups for R&D on gas detectors: from Xe purification, to RPCs and the clean room for detector assembly 1- Spark chamber (outreach) 2 - Liquid Xe purification systems 3 – RPC aging set-up (in background) 4 - Set-up for V and UV diffuse reflection measurements plus surface characterization + Clean room ~class 100 (not visible)

LIP_Coimbra – Second lab (~60 m2) 1 Studies of light emissions from gases under controlled excitation conditions; LED-based isotropic 4 light source 3 A lab for studies of light emission under controlled excitation conditions Studies of air scintillation (EUSO/AUGER) and thermal neutron detectors (FP6 + FP7 + H2020)

Noble gas scintillation LIP_Coimbra – Third lab (~80 m2)) Another lab where we study … Noble gas scintillation Ion drift velocities

General view (270º) of the room with conventional machine-tools. LIP_Coimbra – Mechanical Workshop (~250 m2) General view (270º) of the room with conventional machine-tools. Support to international collaborations since 1987: PS175/CPLEAR (CERN), DELPHI(LEP/CERN), Hera-b (DESY), ATLAS-TILECAL (LHC/CERN), HADES & NeuLAND (GSI) Present/near future engagements: AUGER upgrade + SNO+, along with detector prototypes and medical applications - RPC-PET (animal and human) + RT Monitoring + Cyclotron beam exploitation (w/ ICNAS) Many successful collaborations benefitted from the fundamental technical infrastructure: the Mechanical Workshop; Presently it is engaged in the AUGER Observatory Upgrade and in the source callibration system for SNO+, besides of a number of other important projects.

An experienced team of fine technicians and engineers LIP_Coimbra – Mechanical Workshop (~70 m2) We count on most performant machine-tools, but fortunately on a reliable team of technicians and engineers. An experienced team of fine technicians and engineers High performance 5-axis milling machine and two-headed modern 2-heads lathe (background) both CAD/CAM