arXiv subjects

F. Raffaelli

Publications and source records attributed to F. Raffaelli.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Performances of a new generation tracking detector: the MEG II cylindrical drfit chamber

The cylindrical drift chamber is the most innovative part of the MEG~II detector, the upgraded version of the MEG experiment. The MEG~II chamber differs from the MEG one because it is a single volume cylindrical structure, instead of a segmented one, chosen to improve its resolutions and efficiency in detecting low energy positrons from muon decays at rest. In this paper, we show the characteristics and performances of this fundamental part of the MEG~II apparatus and we discuss the impact of its higher resolution and efficiency on the sensitivity of the MEG~II experiment. Because of its innovative structure and high quality resolution and efficiency the MEG~II cylindrical drift chamber will be a cornerstone in the development of an ideal tracking detector for future positron-electron collider machines.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2023

Operation and performance of MEG II detector

The MEG II experiment, located at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) in Switzerland, is the successor to the MEG experiment, which completed data taking in 2013. MEG II started fully operational data taking in 2021, with the goal of improving the sensitivity of the mu+ -> e+ gamma decay down to 6e-14 almost an order of magnitude better than the current limit. In this paper, we describe the operation and performance of the experiment and give a new estimate of its sensitivity versus data acquisition time.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

An automated QC Station for the Calibration of the Mu2e Calorimeter Readout Units

The Mu2e calorimeter will employ Readout Units, each made of two Silicon Photomultipliers arrays and two Front End Electronics boards. To calibrate them, we have designed, assembled and put in operation an automated Quality Control (QC) station. Gain, collected charge and photon detection efficiency are evaluated for each unit. In this paper, the QC Station is presented, in its hardware and software aspects, summarizing also the tests performed on the ROUs and the first measurement results.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

The measuring systems of the wire tension for the MEG II Drift Chamber by means of the resonant frequency technique

The ultra-low mass cylindrical drift chamber designed for the MEG II experiment is a challenging apparatus made of 1728 phi = 20 micron gold plated tungsten sense wires, 7680 phi = 40 micron and 2496 phi = 50 micron silver plated aluminum field wires. Because of electrostatic stability requirements all the wires have to be stretched at mechanical tensions of about 25, 19 and 29 g respectively which must be controlled at a level better than 0.5 g. This chamber is presently in acquisition, but during its construction about 100 field wires broke, because of chemical corrosion induced by the atmospheric humidity. On the basis of the experience gained with this chamber we decided to build a new one, equipped with a different type of wires less sensitive to corrosion. The choice of the new wire required a deep inspection of its characteristics and one of the main tools for doing this is a system for measuring the wire tension by means of the resonant frequency technique, which is described in this paper. The system forces the wires to oscillate by applying a sinusoidal signal at a known frequency, and then measures the variation of the capacitance between a wire and a common ground plane as a function of the external signal frequency. We present the details of the measuring system and the results obtained by scanning the mechanical tensions of two samples of MEG II cylindrical drift chamber wires and discuss the possible improvements of the experimental apparatus and of the measuring technique.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2021

Detailed analysis of chemical corrosion of ultra-thin wires used in drift chamber detectors

Ultra-thin metallic anodic and cathodic wires are frequently employed in low-mass gaseous detectors for precision experiments, where the amount of material crossed by charged particles must be minimised. We present here the results of an analysis of the mechanical stress and chemical corrosion effects observed in $40$ and $50~{\rm{\mu m}}$ diameter silver plated aluminum wires mounted within the volume of the MEG\,II drift chamber, which caused the breaking of about one hundred wires (over a total of $\approx 12000$). This analysis is based on the accurate inspection of the broken wires by means of optical and electronic microscopes and on a detailed recording of all breaking accidents. We present a simple empirical model which relates the number of broken wires to their exposure time to atmospheric humidity and to their mechanical tension, which is necessary for mechanical stability in the presence of electrostatic fields of several kV/cm. Finally we discuss how wire breakings can be avoided or at least strongly reduced by operating in controlled atmosphere during the mounting stages of the wires within the drift chamber and by choosing a $25\,\%$ thicker wire diameter, which has very small effects on the detector resolution and efficiency and can be obtained by using a safer fabrication technique.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

The Drift Chamber of the MEG II experiment

The MEG experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institut searches for the charged-Lepton-Flavor-Violating mu+ -> e+ gamma decay. MEG has already set the world best upper limit on the branching ratio: BR<4.2x10^-13 @ 90% C.l. An upgrade (MEG II) of the whole detector has been approved to obtain a substantial increase of sensitivity. Currently MEG II is completing the upgrade of the various detectors, an engineering run and a pre-commissioning run were carried out during 2018 and 2019. The new positron tracker is a unique volume, ultra-light He based cylindrical drift chamber (CDCH), with high granularity: 9 layers of 192 square drift cells, ~6-9 mm wide, consist of ~12000 wires in a full stereo configuration. To ensure the electrostatic stability of the drift cells a new wiring strategy should be developed due to the high wire density (12 wires/cm^2 ), the stringent precision requirements on the wire position and uniformity of the wire mechanical tension (better than 0.5 g) The basic idea is to create multiwire frames, by soldering a set of (16 or 32) wires on 40 um thick custom wire-PCBs. Multiwire frames and PEEK spacers are overlapped alternately along the radius, to set the proper cell width, in each of the twelve sectors defined by the spokes of the rudder wheel shaped end-plates. Despite to the conceptual simplicity of the assembling strategies, the building of the multiwire frames, with the set requirements, imposes a use of an automatic wiring system. The MEG II CDCH is the first cylindrical drift chamber ever designed and built in a modular way and it will allow to track positrons, with a momentum greater than 45 MeV/c, with high efficiency by using a very small amount of material, 1.5x10^-3 X0 . We describe the CDCH design and construction, the wiring phase at INFN-Lecce, the choice of the wires, their mechanical properties, the assembly and sealing at INFN-Pisa and the commissioning.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

The new drift chamber of the MEG II experiment

This article presents the MEG II Cylindrical Drift CHamber (CDCH), a key detector for the phase 2 of MEG, which aims at reaching a sensitivity level of the order of $6 \times 10^{-14}$ for the charged Lepton Flavour Violating $μ^+ \rightarrow \mbox{e}^+ γ$ decay. CDCH is designed to overcome the limitations of the MEG $\mbox{e}^+$ tracker and guarantee the proper operation at high rates with long-term detector stability. CDCH is a low-mass unique volume detector with high granularity: 9 layers of 192 drift cells, few mm wide, defined by $\approx 12000$ wires in a stereo configuration for longitudinal hit localization. The total radiation length is $1.5 \times 10^{-3}$ $\mbox{X}_0$, thus minimizing the Multiple Coulomb Scattering (MCS) contribution and allowing for a single-hit resolution of 110 $μ$m and a momentum resolution of 130 keV/c. CDCH integration into the MEG II experimental apparatus will start in this year.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Commissioning of the MEG II tracker system

The MEG experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) represents the state of the art in the search for the charged Lepton Flavour Violating (cLFV) $μ^+ \rightarrow e^+ γ$ decay. With the phase 1, MEG set the new world best upper limit on the $\mbox{BR}(μ^+ \rightarrow e^+ γ) < 4.2 \times 10^{-13}$ (90% C.L.). With the phase 2, MEG II, the experiment aims at reaching a sensitivity enhancement of about one order of magnitude compared to the previous MEG result. The new Cylindrical Drift CHamber (CDCH) is a key detector for MEG II. CDCH is a low-mass single volume detector with high granularity: 9 layers of 192 drift cells, few mm wide, defined by $\sim 12000$ wires in a stereo configuration for longitudinal hit localization. The filling gas mixture is Helium:Isobutane (90:10). The total radiation length is $1.5 \times 10^{-3}$ $\mbox{X}_0$, thus minimizing the Multiple Coulomb Scattering (MCS) contribution and allowing for a single-hit resolution $< 120$ $μ$m and an angular and momentum resolutions of 6 mrad and 90 keV/c respectively. This article presents the CDCH commissioning activities at PSI after the wiring phase at INFN Lecce and the assembly phase at INFN Pisa. The endcaps preparation, HV tests and conditioning of the chamber are described, aiming at reaching the final stable working point. The integration into the MEG II experimental apparatus is described, in view of the first data taking with cosmic rays and $μ^+$ beam during the 2018 and 2019 engineering runs. The first gas gain results are also shown. A full engineering run with all the upgraded detectors and the complete DAQ electronics is expected to start in 2020, followed by three years of physics data taking.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Mu2e calorimeter readout system

The Mu2e electromagnetic calorimeter is made of two disks of un-doped parallelepiped CsI crystals readout by SiPM. There are 674 crystals in one disk and each crystal is readout by an array of two SiPM. The readout electronics is composed of two types of modules: 1) the front-end module hosts the shaping amplifier and the high voltage linear regulator; since one front-end module is interfaced to one SiPM, a total of 2696 modules are needed for the entire calorimeter; 2) a waveform digitizer provides a further level of amplification and digitizes the SiPM signal at the sampling frequency of $200\ \text{M}\text{Hz}$ with 12-bits ADC resolution; since one board digitizes the data received from 20 SiPMs, a total of 136 boards are needed. The readout system operational conditions are hostile: ionization dose of $20\ \text{krads}$, neutron flux of $10^{12}\ \mathrm{n}(1\ \text{MeVeq})/\text{cm}^2$, magnetic field of $1\ \text{T}$ and in vacuum level of $10^{-4}\ \text{Torr}$. A description of the readout system and qualification tests is reported.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

The Mu2e calorimeter: quality assurance of production crystals and SiPMs

The Mu2e calorimeter is composed of two disks each containing 1348 pure CsI crystals, each crystal read out by two arrays of 6x6 mm2 monolithic SiPMs. The experimental requirements have been translated in a series of technical specifications for both crystals and SiPMs. Quality assurance tests, on first crystal and then SiPM production batches, confirm the performances of preproduction samples previously assembled in a calorimeter prototype and tested with an electron beam. The production yield is sufficient to allow the construction of a calorimeter of the required quality in the expected times.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

Gas Distribution and Monitoring for the Drift Chamber of the MEG-II Experiment

The reconstruction of the positron trajectory in the MEG-II experiment searching for the $μ^+ \to e^+ γ$ decay uses a cylindrical drift chamber operated with a helium-isobutane gas mixture. A stable performance of the detector in terms of its electron drift properties, avalanche multiplication, and with a gas mixture of controlled composition and purity has to be provided and continuously monitored. In this paper we describe the strategies adopted to meet the requirements imposed by the target sensitivity of MEG-II, including the construction and commissioning of a small chamber for an online monitoring of the gas quality.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

Design, status and perspective of the Mu2e crystal calorimeter

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the charged lepton flavor violating process of neutrino-less $μ\to e$ coherent conversion in the field of an aluminum nucleus. Mu2e will reach a single event sensitivity of about $2.5\cdot 10^{-17}$ that corresponds to four orders of magnitude improvements with respect to the current best limit. The detector system consists of a straw tube tracker and a crystal calorimeter made of undoped CsI coupled with Silicon Photomultipliers. The calorimeter was designed to be operable in a harsh environment where about 10 krad/year will be delivered in the hottest region and work in presence of 1 T magnetic field. The calorimeter role is to perform $μ$/e separation to suppress cosmic muons mimiking the signal, while providing a high level trigger and a seeding the track search in the tracker. In this paper we present the calorimeter design and the latest R$\&$D results.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

The Mu2e undoped CsI crystal calorimeter

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for Charged Lepton Flavor Violating conversion of a muon to an electron in an atomic field. The Mu2e detector is composed of a tracker, an electromagnetic calorimeter and an external system, surrounding the solenoid, to veto cosmic rays. The calorimeter plays an important role to provide: a) excellent particle identification capabilities; b) a fast trigger filter; c) an easier tracker track reconstruction. Two disks, located downstream of the tracker, contain 674 pure CsI crystals each. Each crystal is read out by two arrays of UV-extended SiPMs. The choice of the crystals and SiPMs has been finalized after a thorough test campaign. A first small scale prototype consisting of 51 crystals and 102 SiPM arrays has been exposed to an electron beam at the BTF (Beam Test Facility) in Frascati. Although the readout electronics were not the final, results show that the current design is able to meet the timing and energy resolution required by the Mu2e experiment.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

Quality Assurance on Un-Doped CsI Crystals for the Mu2e Experiment

The Mu2e experiment is constructing a calorimeter consisting of 1,348 undoped CsI crystals in two disks. Each crystal has a dimension of 34 x 34 x 200 mm, and is readout by a large area silicon PMT array. A series of technical specifications was defined according to physics requirements. Preproduction CsI crystals were procured from three firms: Amcrys, Saint-Gobain and Shanghai Institute of Ceramics. We report the quality assurance on crystal's scintillation properties and their radiation hardness against ionization dose and neutrons. With a fast decay time of 30 ns and a light output of more than 100 p.e./MeV measured with a bi-alkali PMT, undoped CsI crystals provide a cost-effective solution for the Mu2e experiment.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

The Mu2e Calorimeter Final Technical Design Report

Since the first version of the Mu2e TDR released at the beginning of 2015, the Mu2e Calorimeter system has undergone a long list of changes to arrive to its final design. These changes were primarily caused by two reasons: (i) the technology choice between the TDR proposed solution of BaF2 crystals readout with solar blind Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs) and the backup option of CsI crystals readout with Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) has been completed and (ii) the channels numbering, the mechanical system and the readout electronics were substantially modified while proceeding with engineering towards the final project. This document updates the description of the calorimeter system adding the most recent engineering drawings and tecnical progresses.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

Design and status of the Mu2e crystal calorimeter

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab searches for the charged-lepton flavour violating (CLFV) conversion of a negative muon into an electron in the field of an aluminum nucleus, with a distinctive signature of a mono-energetic electron of energy slightly below the muon rest mass (104.967 MeV). The Mu2e goal is to improve by four orders of magnitude the search sensitivity with respect to the previous experiments. Any observation of a CLFV signal will be a clear indication of new physics. The Mu2e detector is composed of a tracker, an electro- magnetic calorimeter and an external veto for cosmic rays surrounding the solenoid. The calorimeter plays an important role in providing particle identification capabilities, a fast online trigger filter, a seed for track reconstruction while working in vacuum, in the presence of 1 T axial magnetic field and in an harsh radiation environment. The calorimeter requirements are to provide a large acceptance for 100 MeV electrons and reach at these energies: (a) a time resolution better than 0.5 ns; (b) an energy resolution < 10% and (c) a position resolution of 1 cm. The calorimeter design consists of two disks, each one made of 674 undoped CsI crystals read by two large area arrays of UV-extended SiPMs. We report here the construction and test of the Module-0 prototype. The Module-0 has been exposed to an electron beam in the energy range around 100 MeV at the Beam Test Facility in Frascati. Preliminary results of timing and energy resolution at normal incidence are shown. A discussion of the technical aspects of the calorimeter engineering is also reported in this paper.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

The design of the MEG II experiment

The MEG experiment, designed to search for the mu+->e+ gamma decay at a 10^-13 sensitivity level, completed data taking in 2013. In order to increase the sensitivity reach of the experiment by an order of magnitude to the level of 6 x 10-14 for the branching ratio, a total upgrade, involving substantial changes to the experiment, has been undertaken, known as MEG II. We present both the motivation for the upgrade and a detailed overview of the design of the experiment and of the expected detector performance.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2017

Quality Assurance on a custom SiPMs array for the Mu2e experiment

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the coherent $μ\to e$ conversion on aluminum atoms. The detector system consists of a straw tube tracker and a crystal calorimeter. A pre-production of 150 Silicon Photomultiplier arrays for the Mu2e calorimeter has been procured. A detailed quality assur- ance has been carried out on each SiPM for the determination of its own operation voltage, gain, dark current and PDE. The measurement of the mean-time-to-failure for a small random sample of the pro-production group has been also completed as well as the determination of the dark current increase as a function of the ioninizing and non-ioninizing dose.

physics.ins-det↗