arXiv subjects

Maria Mironova

Publications and source records attributed to Maria Mironova.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Energy-resolved measurement of individual GeV muon tracks generated by electrons from a compact Laser-Plasma Accelerator

Recently, the possibility of LPA-produced muon beams has gained significant interest within the accelerator application community. Directional, multi-GeV muons can be produced via Bethe-Heitler interactions when multi-GeV electrons hit solid targets. They are highly penetrating and, thanks to the compactness of the LPA, offer a path toward a deployable, active muon source. At the BELLA Center of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, we previously unambiguously detected muons generated during the interaction of multi-GeV electron beams with a 4 meter-thick electron beam dump. A new campaign has now extended our diagnostic capabilities to single-muon trajectory reconstruction and energy measurements. The setup allowed us to individually reconstruct each muon trajectory, defined by us as a muon passing through three detectors used for the reconstruction. For a subset of events, we extracted the muon energy from the magnetic-field bending angle, demonstrating production of GeV-scale muons. This work provides a key demonstration of track-based active-source muography, which enables non-invasive 3D density mapping of concealed or inaccessible samples, and it will accelerate the development of active LPA-based muon sources where compactness, controlled directionality, low divergence, and deep penetration are required.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2024

Measurement of directional muon beams generated at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator

We present the detection of directional muon beams produced using a PW laser at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The muon source is a multi-GeV electron beam generated in a 30 cm laser plasma accelerator interacting with a high-Z converter target. The GeV photons resulting from the interaction are converted into a high-flux, directional muon beam via pair production. By employing scintillators to capture delayed events, we were able to identify the produced muons and characterize the source. Using theoretical knowledge of the muon production process combined with simulations that are in excellent agreement with the experiments, we demonstrate that the multi-GeV electron beams produce GeV-scale muons in numbers far exceeding those from cosmic background. Laser-plasma-accelerator-based muon sources can therefore enhance muon imaging applications thanks to their compactness, directionality, and high yields, which reduce the exposure time by orders of magnitude compared to cosmic ray muons. Using the Geant4-based simulation code we developed to gain insight into the experimental results, we can design future experiments and applications based on LPA-generated muons.

physics.acc-ph↗

arXiv2024

Dose rate dependence of TID damage to 65 nm CMOS transistors in X-ray irradiations of the ATLAS ITk Pixel ASIC (ITkPix)

The ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) upgrade for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) requires a radiation-tolerant pixel readout chip, which must withstand a total ionising dose (TID) of up to 1 Grad. The readout ASIC for the ITk upgrade has been designed by the RD53 collaboration using 65 nm CMOS technology. In order to characterise the radiation tolerance of the chip digital logic, the RD53 ASICs include ring oscillators, which can be used to measure gate delay degradation. Extensive X-ray irradiation studies of the ring oscillators have been performed on the ITk Pixel pre-production readout ASIC, ITkPixV1. A dependence of radiation damage on dose rate has been observed in 65 nm CMOS technology. This paper aims to quantify the dose rate dependence of TID damage to the ITkPix ring oscillators and, therefore, the ITkPix ASIC digital logic. X-ray irradiations at different dose rates between 20 krad/h and 30 Mrad/h are compared. A dose rate dependence is observed, with 2-3 times more damage at the lowest dose rate of 20 krad/h, compared to 4 Mrad/h. The dose rate dependence was also observed to be dependent on transistor size and type.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2021

A High Pressure Time Projection Chamber with Optical Readout

Measurements of proton-nucleus scattering and high resolution neutrino-nucleus interaction imaging are key to reduce neutrino oscillation systematic uncertainties in future experiments. A High Pressure Time Projection Chamber (HPTPC) prototype has been constructed and operated at Royal Holloway University of London and CERN as a first step in the development of a HPTPC capable of performing these measurements as part of a future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. In this paper we describe the design and operation of the prototype HPTPC with an argon based gas mixture. We report on the successful hybrid charge and optical readout, using four CCD cameras, of signals from Am-241 sources.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Measurement of the relative response of TowerJazz Mini-MALTA CMOS prototypes at Diamond Light Source

This paper outlines the results of investigations into the effects of radiation damage in the mini-MALTA prototype. Measurements were carried out at Diamond Light Source using a micro-focus X-ray beam, which scanned across the surface of the device in 2 $\mathrm{μm}$ steps. This allowed the in-pixel photon response to be measured directly with high statistics. Three pixel design variations were considered: one with the standard continuous $\mathrm{n^-}$ layer layout and front-end, and extra deep p-well and $\mathrm{n^-}$ gap designs with a modified front-end. Five chips were measured: one unirradiated, one neutron irradiated, and three proton irradiated.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Automatic Selection of CDS Timing Parameters

CDS is a process used in many CCD readout systems to cancel the reset noise component that would otherwise dominate. CDS processing typically consists of subtracting the integrated video signal during a "signal" period from that during a "reset" period. The response of this processing depends therefore on the shape of the video signal with respect to the integration bounds. In particular, the amount of noise appearing in the final image and the linearity of the pixel value with signal charge are affected by the choice of the CDS timing intervals. In this paper, we use a digital CDS readout system which highly oversamples the video signal (as compared with the pixel rate) to reconstruct pixel values for different CDS timings using identical raw video signal data. We use this technique to develop insights into optimal strategy for selecting CDS timings both in the digital case (where the raw video signal may be available), and in the general case where it is not. In particular, we show that the linearity of the CDS operation allows subtraction of the raw video signals of pixels in bias images from those in illuminated images to directly show the effects of CDS processing on the final (subtracted) pixel values.

astro-ph.IM↗