1. 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 ! …

2. 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 !

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. RPCs (all projects, only detector-related)
Statistics
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

8. 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) Set-up for V and UV diffuse reflection measurements plus surface characterization
+ Clean room ~class 100 (not visible)

9. 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)

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

11. 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.

12. 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