Multidetector device for the detection of coincidences of charged particles and γ rays

A 4π position-sensitive, axisymmetrical assembly of Si-Au charged-particle detectors is proposed, implemented, and tested on a beam of heavy ions; the dimensions and structure of the device are conducive to the organization of coincidences of charged reaction products with discrete γ rays emitted by the daughter nucleus and registered by a system of ultrapure Ge detectors. First results are obtained from an investigation of the reaction ⁵⁸Ni(¹⁶O,α2pγ)⁶⁸Ge at E ₀=74.5 MeV. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 68, 139–142 (April 1998)     

Euroball: Present status and outlook

Euroball is a European project to build a highly efficient and powerful gamma-ray spectrometer for nuclear structure spectroscopy. The project is an amalgamation of recent technical advances in detectors, electronics and data acquisition. In the first phase the spectrometer consists of 30 large single crystal Ge detectors, 26 Clover Ge detectors and 15 Cluster Ge detectors each with an associated suppression shield. The 239 individual Ge detector elements will have a total photopeak efficiency ∈ _p of ≈ 10% and will enable the properties of the atomic nucleus to be studied with a sensitivity up to or better than 10^?5 of the production cross-section. The elements of the spectrometer, including the detectors, the electronics and the data acquisition system, some of the planned ancillary detectors and the first results will be presented. Several developments are under investigation for the upgrade of Euroball for its second phase. These include an inner BGO ball for multiplicity and summed energy determination and inner particle detectors for charged particle identification. These developments will also be discussed.     

Scintillation characteristics of thin-film calcium iodide crystal x-ray detectors

A container design for fabricating low-energy x-ray scintillation detectors is proposed. CaI₂ and CaI₂:Eu crystal detectors are fabricated and their characteristics are investigated. It is shown that on account of their layered structure, perfect cleavage, and high light output, calcium iodide scintillators can be used to fabricate thin-film detectors for long-wavelength x rays. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 68, 87–90 (August 1998)     

Microplasma-Based Detectors for Gas Chromatography: Current Status and Future Trends

Abstract: Microplasma is a useful detector for analyzing the effluent of gas chromato-graphy due to its remarkable capacity for portability, high sensitivity, and excellent multielement selectivity. Compared to classical detectors, microplasma detectors have the advantages of small size, low cost, and low energy consumption in design and operation. We aim to provide an overview of microplasma detectors and show their applications in various chemical analyses. The operational characteristics and analytical performance of different microplasma detectors, such as capacitively coupled microplasma, glow discharge microplasma, and microhollow-cathode microplasma, are presented in detail to reveal the current status of microplasma detectors for gas chromatography. In addition, several approaches for the design of microplasma are discussed and the future trends in the development of microplasma detectors are highlighted at the end of this review. Various applications of microplasma detectors for gas chromatography systems are also presented in this review.     

Search for weak transitions in the decay of125Sb and accurate gamma intensities

The weak transitions in the decay of¹²⁵Sb have been investigated through gamma ray measurements with high resolution X-ray and with large volume Ge(Li) detectors. The 172.6, 178.8 and 198.5 keV gamma rays are confirmed, while others previously reported were not. Accurate intensities were obtained for the stronger transitions. The weighted averages of these intensities which cover the range of 116 to 670 keV are useful for calibration of Ge(Li) systems.     

New levels observed in188Os from the decay of188Re

The level structure of¹⁸⁸Os has been investigated following the decay of 17h¹⁸⁸Re. The energies and relative intensities of 41 gamma rays were determined using large volume high resolution Ge(Li) detectors. The decay was observed to populate the 0⁺ states at 1478 and 1704 keV which were recently observed in (p, t) reaction studies. Additional states at 1414 and 1843 keV were also observed in the decay.     

Evolution of nuclear spectroscopy at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics

Experimental studies of nuclear excitations have been an important subject from the earliest days when the institute was established. The construction of 4 MeV proton cyclotron was mainly aimed to achieve this goal. Early experiments in nuclear spectroscopy were done with radioactive nuclei with the help of beta and gamma ray spectrometers. Small NaI(Tl) detectors were used for gamma-gamma coincidence, angular correlation and life time measurements. The excited states nuclear magnetic moments were measured in perturbed gamma-gamma angular correlation experiments. A high transmission magnetic beta ray spectrometer was used to measure internal conversion coefficients and beta-gamma coincidence studies. A large number of significant contributions were made during 1950–59 using these facilities. Proton beam in the cyclotron was made available in the late 1950’s and together with 14 MeV neutrons obtained from a C-W generator a large number of short-lived nuclei were investigated during 1960’s and 1970’s. The introduction of high resolution Ge gamma detectors and the improved electronics helped to extend the spectroscopic work which include on-line (p ₇ p′γ) and (p ₇ nγ) reaction studies. Nuclear spectroscopic studies entered a new phase in the 1980’s with the availability of 40–80 MeV alpha beam from the variable energy cyclotron at VECC, Calcutta. A number of experimental groups were formed in the institute to study nuclear level schemes with (α ₇ xnγ) reactions. Initially only two unsuppressed Ge detectors were used for coincidence studies. Later in 1989 five Ge detectors with a large six segmented NaI(Tl) multiplicitysum detector system were successfully used to select various channels in (α ₇ xnγ) reactions. From 1990 to date a variety of medium energy heavy ions were made available from the BARC-TIFR Pelletron and the Nuclear Science Centre Pelletron. The state of the art gamma detector arrays in these centres enabled the Saha Institute groups to undertake more sophisticated experiments. Front line nuclear spectroscopy works are now being done and new informations are obtained for a large number of nuclei over a wide mass range. Currently Saha Institute is building a multi-element gamma heavy ion neutron array detector (MEGHNAD), which will have six high efficiency clover Ge detector together with charged particle ball and other accessories. The system is expected to be usable in 2002 and will be used in experiments using high energy heavy ions from VECC.     

Germanium detector array — GERDA

GERDA will be a new experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) to study neutrinoless double beta decay of ⁷⁶Ge at background levels <10⁻³ cts/(keV kg y) at , two orders of magnitude lower than in the previous experiments. Bare Ge-diodes, enriched to 86% in ⁷⁶Ge, are operated in liquid argon complemented by a water shield to reduce the external backgrounds. Intrinsic backgrounds will be suppressed by the pulse shape analysis and segmented electrodes. In GERDAs first phase, the detector array will consist of the existing and refurbished detectors of the previous Heidelberg-Moscow and IGEX experiments. After one year of measurement, the setup should allow us to scrutinize the claimed observation of 0νββ decay in ⁷⁶Ge. In its second phase, GERDA will use an additional set of new enriched ⁷⁶Ge crystals, as segmented or point contact detectors. After 100 kg y the sensitivity will be ; this corresponds to an effective Majorana mass range from 0.1 eV to 0.2 eV.     

High pressure solid state amorphization of Si,Ge and solid solutions Si:GaAs,Ge:GaSb

Abstract

The bulk amorphous tetrahedral semiconductors (Si, Ge. Si_0.89(GaAs)_0.11, Ge_1?x(GaSb)_x (0.12<X<I)) were obtained using solid state amorphization. The disordering process occurs at the decompression of high pressure phases Si II, Gell at low temperatures and of solid solutions Sill: GaAs, GeII: GaSb at room temperature. The structure and stability of the obtained phases were investigated     

Results of the pilot experiment to search for inelastic interactions of WIMPs with 73Ge

A pilot search for the excitation of ⁷³Ge to the first excited state at 13.26 keV by spin-dependent interactions of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) was performed. The first experimental results have been analyzed with a new method. The background for these reactions is ≤0.0012 events/(keV kg(⁷³Ge) d). Although there is no theory for E2 excitations by WIMPs, this very large suppression of the background may promise an enlarged version of this experiment to be competitive. It is appropriate to propose an experiment with several kg of enriched ⁷³Ge detectors based on these results.     

Two quasi-particle levels in136Ba and the decay of136Cs

The decay of 13-day¹³⁶Cs has been studied using high-resolution Ge(Li) detectors. Several low-intensity gamma rays were observed for the first time. New levels have been deduced in¹³⁶Ba at energies of 2356.7 and 2372.7 keV.     

The peculiarities of the tunneling conductance and phonon induced features in tetrahedrically bonded semiconductors under pressure

Abstract

Summary The 30 kbar high pressure unit for low temperatures and the digital processing have been applied to the tunneling investigations of Ge and GaAs. The obtained results include the values of the mode Gruneisen constants for zone boundary phonons in <100> direction in Ge, the irregular optical phonons behavior in GaAs, the bistability of tunneling voltage-current curve for GaAs at elevated pressure and the observation of optically induced oscillations on the tunneling conductance of GaAs Schottky barrier. The semi-quantitative model involving the conductance band structure change under pressure and DX-centers in GaAs(Te) is used for the tentative explanation.     

The Majorana Ge double-beta decay project

The MAJORANA Project is a research and development activity set up to establish the feasibility and cost of a double-beta decay experiment comprising a one-ton array of Ge detectors fabricated from germanium enriched to about 86% in ⁷⁶Ge.     

Pressure dependent study of semiconductors using semiempirical equations of state

Abstract

Variation of bulk modulus of Si, Ge and GaAs with pressure is studied using four semiempirical equations of state, two of which being proposed very recently. Hence an expression for bulk modulus for arbitrary pressure for the semiconductors similar to Cohen's formula for zero pressure is arrived at. The applicability of these equations of state for the high pressure phases of Si and Ge is tested using the recent experimental and theoretical pressure-volume data of these phases.     

New limits on double beta decay of 76Ge

New results are presented from an experiment on double beta decay of ⁷⁶Ge carried out with two Ge Li detectors in the Mont Blanc tunnel. No evidence has been found for neutrinoless double beta decay, and the obtained lower limit of the half lifetime (1.2 × 10²³ yr) is discussed in terms of the mass of Majorana neutrinos and of the possible presence of right-handed currents.     

Muon capture in Ar. The muon lifetime and yields of Cl isotopes

The time and energy spectra of γ rays, accompanying negative muon capture in a ⁴⁰Ar target, have been measured using Ge detectors. The results of measuring the muon lifetime in ⁴⁰Ar and yields of different Cl and S isotopes at μ capture are reported.     

A germanium photodetector array for the near infrared monolithically integrated with silicon CMOS readout electronics

Near infrared (NIR) detectors, operating in the 1.3–1.6 μm region, are key elements in a number of applications ranging from optical communications to remote sensing. InGaAs and Ge are currently the materials of choice for the fabrication of NIR detectors due to their good absorption and transport properties. However, as the required performances increase (bit-rate in optical communications, number of pixels in imaging, etc.), it becomes more and more important to reduce the separation from detectors and driving/biasing and amplifying electronics, by integrating the two components on the same chip.We demonstrate an array of NIR detectors monolithically integrated with standard silicon CMOS readout electronics. The employed low temperature process allowed the integration of the detectors as the last step of chip fabrication. The integrated micro-system consists of a linear array of 120×120 μm² pixels, an analog CMOS multiplexer and a transimpedance amplifier. The chip exhibits a good photoresponse in the NIR, with responsivities as high as 43 V/W at 1.3 μm, dark currents of 1 mA/cm² and inter-pixel cross-talk better than −20 dB.     

Recent results of the IGEX 76Ge double-beta decay experiment

The International Germanium Experiment (IGEX) has now analyzed 117 mol yr of data from its isotopically enriched (86% ⁷⁶Ge) germanium detectors. Applying pulse shape discrimination (PSD) to the more recent data, the lower bound on the half-life for neutrinoless double-beta decay of ⁷⁶Ge is deduced: T _1/2(0ν)>1.57×10²⁵ yr (90% C.L.). This corresponds to an upper bound on the Majorana neutrino mass parameter, 〈m _ν〉, between 0.33 eV and 1.35 eV depending on the choice of theoretical nuclear matrix elements used in the analysis.     

The decay scheme of Ag

The γ-radiations following the decay of ¹¹²Ag have been studied with Ge(Li) detectors. The ¹¹²Ag half-life has been measured as 3.16±0.02 h; twenty gamma radiations ranging in energy from 606.7 keV to 2829.6 keV have been observed.

Gamma-gamma coincidence measurements have been performed with Ge(Li) and NaI(Tl) detectors. A decay scheme consistent with the present data is proposed.     

Gamma-gamma angular correlations in125Te

Angular correlation measurements of the γ transitions coincident with 35.5 keV in¹²⁵Te were carried out with Ge(Li)-Si(Li) detectors. Mixing ratios for some of the transitions were determined.