Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have made a groundbreaking discovery in high-energy particle detection during recent experiments at the Test Beam Facility at DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). Their research has revealed a new application for superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs), typically used for detecting photons, the basic units of light.
SNSPDs, which function by absorbing individual photons and creating small electrical signals in superconducting nanowires at ultra-low temperatures, have been instrumental in fields such as quantum cryptography, precision optical sensing, and quantum computing. Now, researchers have found that these highly sensitive detectors may also be used to detect high-energy protons, the positively charged particles found in atomic nuclei and commonly used in particle accelerator experiments.
"This was a first-of-its-kind use of the technology," said Argonne physicist Whitney Armstrong. "This step was critical to demonstrate that the technology works the way we want it to because it is typically geared toward photons. It was a key demonstration for future high-impact applications."
The research team fabricated SNSPDs with varying wire dimensions and tested them with a beam of 120 GeV protons at Fermilab, the nearest facility capable of conducting such experiments. These tests were crucial in assessing how SNSPDs could perform in high-energy physics environments. The team discovered that wire widths smaller than 400 nanometers-whereas a human hair is approximately 100,000 nanometers wide-achieved the required detection efficiency for high-energy proton sensing. Their findings pinpointed an optimal wire width of about 250 nanometers for this purpose.
Beyond their exceptional sensitivity and precision, SNSPDs also demonstrate strong performance in high magnetic fields, making them well-suited for deployment in superconducting magnets used to accelerate particles. The ability to detect high-energy protons using SNSPDs is a pioneering achievement, expanding the range of applications for these detectors in particle physics.
"This was a successful technology transfer between quantum sciences, for photon detection, into experimental nuclear physics," said Argonne physicist Tomas Polakovic. "We took the photon-sensing device and made slight changes to make it work better in magnetic fields and for particles. And behold, we saw the particles exactly as we expected."
The research also indicates that SNSPDs could be highly beneficial for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a state-of-the-art particle accelerator under development at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory. The EIC will explore the internal structure of protons and atomic nuclei by colliding electrons with them, providing deeper insights into quarks and gluons-the fundamental building blocks of protons and neutrons.
"The proton energy range that we tested at Fermilab is right in the middle of the span of the ion's energy range that we will detect at EIC, so these tests were well-suited," noted Sangbaek Lee, a physics postdoctoral appointee at Argonne.
This research utilized the Reactive Ion Etching tool at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne.
Additional contributors to the study include Alan Dibos, Timothy Draher, Nathaniel Pastika, Zein-Eddine Meziani, and Valentine Novosad.
Research Report:Beam tests of SNSPDs with 120 GeV protons
Related Links
Argonne National Laboratory
Understanding Time and Space
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