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Frontiers In Undergraduate Research Poster Session (view source)
Revision as of 04:32, 16 February 2008
, 04:32, 16 February 2008→Revision
=== Abstract ===
=== Abstract ===
The main purpose of this research is to construct a Tagger Microscope for use in the GlueX project. Issues that are currently being addresses include; how to cleave and polish a two millimeter square acrylic optical fibers, how to then couple scintillators to acrylic waveguides, how to couple the scintillator waveguide pair to a SiPM (silicon photomultiplier). Optically clear two competent epoxies are being experimented with to couple the scintillators to the acrylic waveguides. Preliminary testing with optically clear epoxies show promising results, that is, epoxies are proving to be a reliable way to couple the fibers with minimal transmission loss. Designs for a device to couple the scintillator waveguide pair to the SiPMs, called a chimney, are being developed. The prototype chimney is expected to be completed used in further testing in the near future.
The main purpose of this research is to construct a Tagger Microscope for use in the GlueX project. Issues that are currently being addresses include; how to cleave and polish a two millimeter square acrylic optical fibers, how to then couple scintillators to acrylic waveguides, how to couple the scintillator waveguide pair to a SiPM (silicon photomultiplier). Optically clear two competent epoxies are being experimented with to couple the scintillators to the acrylic waveguides. Preliminary testing with optically clear epoxies show promising results, that is, epoxies are proving to be a reliable way to couple the fibers with minimal transmission loss. Designs for a device to couple the scintillator waveguide pair to the SiPMs, called a chimney, are being developed. The prototype chimney is expected to be completed used in further testing in the near future.
=== Revision ===
At the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia, a team of nuclear physicists has come up with a way to probe the nuclear "glue" that binds quarks together inside protons and neutrons. The probe to be used in this experiment consists of a beam of polarized particles of light called photons with a specific energy close to 10 billion electron-Volts. The University of Connecticut Nuclear Physics group has designed a detector to “tag” the amount energy the photons will have. This detector consists of a large array of closely-packed optical fibers made of a special plastic called "scintillator" that produces a brief flash of light whenever struck by a high-energy particle. These scintillating fibers are coupled to individual photodiodes, which convert the flashes of light into electrical pulses that are recorded during the course of an experiment. Methods and tooling for the construction of the fiber detectors is under development by undergraduate researchers in the Physics Department at Storrs. The immediate goal of this project is to construct a scaled-down prototype of the tagging detector. This prototype will be taken to Jefferson Lab and tested under realistic conditions in a photon beam prior to launching construction of the full-scale model.