Measurement of Radiation Damage on Silica Aerogel \v Cerenkov Radiator
We measured the radiation damage on silica aerogel \v Cerenkov radiators originally developed for the $B$-factory experiment at KEK. Refractive index of the aerogel samples ranged from 1.012 to 1.028. The samples were irradiated up to 9.8~MRad of equivalent dose. Measurements of transmittance and refractive index were carried out and these samples were found to be radiation hard. Deteriorations in transparency and changes of refractive index were observed to be less than 1.3\% and 0.001 at 90\% confidence level, respectively. Prospects of using aerogels under high-radiation environment are discussed.
hep-ex↗