Development of a Time Projection Chamber for a linear experiment : optimization of the readout electronics
(2012) FYSM31 20102Department of Physics
Particle and nuclear physics
- Abstract
- The field of particle physics is ever evolving. With the recent advent of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) it is possible that the long sought for Higgs boson is detected. While this is not certain even if it is found it is likely that it will need more precise methods of investigation. For this and other reasons, a new collider called the International Linear Collider (ILC) is being planned. This collider will be used to collide leptons which will enable more precise measurements compared to a hadron collider. In order to benefit from this, improvements to the current detectors, such as the Time Projection Chamber (TPC), are also needed.
The TPC is placed inside a solenoid shaped magnet with a field strength usually ranging up to a few... (More) - The field of particle physics is ever evolving. With the recent advent of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) it is possible that the long sought for Higgs boson is detected. While this is not certain even if it is found it is likely that it will need more precise methods of investigation. For this and other reasons, a new collider called the International Linear Collider (ILC) is being planned. This collider will be used to collide leptons which will enable more precise measurements compared to a hadron collider. In order to benefit from this, improvements to the current detectors, such as the Time Projection Chamber (TPC), are also needed.
The TPC is placed inside a solenoid shaped magnet with a field strength usually ranging up to a few Teslas. In the bore of the magnet the TPC contains a mixture and an electric field applied between a central cathode and the anode at the signal readout plane. When a particle enters the gas mixture it ionizes the gas thus releasing electrons which will drift towards the anode where they will undergo an avalanche process in a high E-field region. The signal is then read out by small pads. The TPC is a 3D particle detector capable of momentum measurements, energy loss measurements and particle identification.
This thesis is based on the improvement of the current TPCs. Both a novel amplification technique, called Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) as well as new amplifier chip PCA16 is tested. The ALTRO chip is an Analog to Digital converter with, among other characteristics, a resolution of 10 bits and a sampling frequency of 20 MHz.
The measurements dealt with in this thesis were done at DESY in 2009 and 2010. Unfortunately they both suffer from distortions caused by an inhomogeneous electric field. The 2009 data appear to be a little less affected and that is why the analysis is focused on that data.
The results seem to indicate that the GEMs are likely to enable good enough momentum and energy loss measurements of a future TPC. The results also point towards the fact that a 6 bit ADC should be sufficient while still retaining a good enough resolution in a future TPC. The sampling frequency however should not be set lower than 20 MHz. (Less)
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@misc{2370512,
abstract = {{The field of particle physics is ever evolving. With the recent advent of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) it is possible that the long sought for Higgs boson is detected. While this is not certain even if it is found it is likely that it will need more precise methods of investigation. For this and other reasons, a new collider called the International Linear Collider (ILC) is being planned. This collider will be used to collide leptons which will enable more precise measurements compared to a hadron collider. In order to benefit from this, improvements to the current detectors, such as the Time Projection Chamber (TPC), are also needed.
The TPC is placed inside a solenoid shaped magnet with a field strength usually ranging up to a few Teslas. In the bore of the magnet the TPC contains a mixture and an electric field applied between a central cathode and the anode at the signal readout plane. When a particle enters the gas mixture it ionizes the gas thus releasing electrons which will drift towards the anode where they will undergo an avalanche process in a high E-field region. The signal is then read out by small pads. The TPC is a 3D particle detector capable of momentum measurements, energy loss measurements and particle identification.
This thesis is based on the improvement of the current TPCs. Both a novel amplification technique, called Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) as well as new amplifier chip PCA16 is tested. The ALTRO chip is an Analog to Digital converter with, among other characteristics, a resolution of 10 bits and a sampling frequency of 20 MHz.
The measurements dealt with in this thesis were done at DESY in 2009 and 2010. Unfortunately they both suffer from distortions caused by an inhomogeneous electric field. The 2009 data appear to be a little less affected and that is why the analysis is focused on that data.
The results seem to indicate that the GEMs are likely to enable good enough momentum and energy loss measurements of a future TPC. The results also point towards the fact that a 6 bit ADC should be sufficient while still retaining a good enough resolution in a future TPC. The sampling frequency however should not be set lower than 20 MHz.}},
author = {{Lind, Ted}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Development of a Time Projection Chamber for a linear experiment : optimization of the readout electronics}},
year = {{2012}},
}