Large Area Fast Timing Photon Sensors for Cherenkov Detectors in Neutrino Physics and Particle Identification

Cherenkov light is emitted when a charged particle is traversing a material faster then the speed of light in this material. This faint source of light provides invaluable information on the particle, its path and speed. As such, detector systems using Cherenkov light have been crucial experimental tools for many scientific discoveries, from Astronomy to neutrino physics to the detailed understanding of the subatomic world explored by nuclear and particle physicists.

Advances in scientific understanding go hand in hand with advances in the development of instrumentation for the next generation of experiments. In the field of neutrino physics, a large underground detector is planned to be installed in this decade in the Boulby Underground Laboratory in Yorkshire. A crucial next step for our understanding of the ways quarks and gluons act together to form the nucleons and nuclei around us will be made by the planned Electron Ion Collider in the USA.

Both project will rely on the next generation of Cherenkov detectors to fulfil their science potential.

The detection of the faint signal form Cherenkov light and extraction of the maximum amount of information from this source requires visible light photon sensors covering large area while still providing a very good position and time resolution. They have to operate efficiently in challenging circumstances. A new device based on Micro-Channel plates in a large tile, the LAPPD, has been recently developed and has become available for evaluation.

This project will study the properties and performance of this device in detail and evaluate its performance with respect to the challenging demands of the next generation of Cherenkov detectors for fundamental physics research.