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Projects 2021
Projects 2021

In 2020, a call for tenders for so-called emerging projects was launched. The aim of this call was to valorize audacity and risk-taking by privileging projects opening towards new activities, new applications, proofs of concept...

9 projects were selected: click on the titles of the proposals to display the summaries.

 
The Roman Pots are an integral part of the detection system of the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). To achieve an excellent time resolution (30-40 ps) and to be able to place them very close to the beam, innovative sensors called LGAD (Low Gain Avalanche Diodes) AC-coupled are being studied at Brookhaven National Lab (USA). Moreover, a pixel size of 0.5×0.5 mm2 is necessary to guarantee a resolution of 10 MeV/c in the measurement of the transverse pulse of the particles. DC-coupled LGADs are currently used in the ATLAS HGTD project with pixel sizes of 1.3×1.3 mm2 and an ASIC partly developed of a reading ASIC using the preamplifier/discriminator part developed by OMEGA and a TDC developed by Irfu/DEDIP in order to have full control of this ASIC. With a pixel capacity 7 times smaller, the preamplifier must be re-optimized taking into account the need for low dissipation. The TDC requires an adaptation to the characteristics of EIC in terms of dynamics and precision. In addition, the smaller pixel size will probably lead to a simplification of the digital part used in ATLAS. 
 

In the framework of the fixed target project in the ALICE experiment at the LHC, the project leaders propose to realize a prototype of a solid target system, to carry out beam tests at the SPS, and to study impact of the solid target on the impedance of the LHC beams. The prototype and SPS tests will validate the proposed implementation at the LHC with a retractable solid target and a curved crystal upstream of the experiment in order to deflect the beam halo on the solid target. The LHC beam impedance studies will allow the optimization of the solid target system.

 
Superconducting radio frequency cavities (SRF) made of massive niobium (Nb) have been developed by a few laboratories around the world over the last 50 years and are now the technology of choice for current and future accelerators. Increasing the RF performance of these cavities and reducing manufacturing and operating costs pose real technological challenges. Fortunately, new materials, multi-layer structures and cooling techniques offer real technological opportunities that will significantly reduce cryogenic costs while increasing performance. This project proposes to develop and characterize new alloys and cavity structures with integrated cooling circuit by 3D printing. These structures will serve as "substrate" for the deposition of superconducting films. The goal of this project is to produce a 3.9 GHz elliptical cavity as a proof of technological feasibility. In the longer term, the goal is to demonstrate the operation of a 4.2 K superconducting cavity using this technology and cooled with a cryo-generator.
 
The FlarePredict project tackles the complex problem of predicting the most intense solar flares. Indeed, for more than a decade, numerous efforts have been made in solar physics to try to predict these flares, which are the source of the most intense phenomena in space weather, and thus have a strong impact on our geospatial environment. In 2016, a systematic study has shown that for the most intense flares, no current method can predict beyond their simple statistics. In this project, a radically new approach will be developed, mixing statistical models, data assimilation, and deep learning to try to predict these flares and break the current deadlock. A demonstrator of this method, developed with Canadian colleagues, shows very encouraging initial results and pushes us to continue today in this direction.
 
With a first thesis co-funded by the P2IO LabEx, we started exploring the use of high resistivity TES thermometers as sensitive elements of spatial X-ray detectors, in order to open way to more sensitive and more pixelated arrays. This thesis was a strong encouragement to continue the developments, in order to reach a new stage of demonstration. This is the objective of this project, which is part of the start of a new thesis in December 2020. This program has three objectives: 1) to highlight the performance of the device in terms of spectral resolution, 2) to test new devices more optimized and representative, 3) to show that the innovative reading mode used, can be multiplexed. For this, new devices are needed: 1) an optimized evolution of the current pixel, 2) a matrix prefiguration of the detector, 3) a multiplexing integrated circuit.
 
The project aims to develop a new approach for real time ultra-high intensity (UHI) laser pulse characterization for improved control based on machine learning. A complete characterization of the laser pulse intensity profile involves scan and complex iterative software algorithms for phase retrieval that are not suitable for online single shot laser characterization. The online monitoring and control of spatio-temporal distortion of femtosecond UHI laser pulse is challenging and crucial for applications, such as laser-driven wakefield acceleration. We aim to develop a new diagnostic prototype based on machine learning associated with adapted measurement devices which could be either hyperspectral cameras or combination of 2D spectrometers to address all the spatio-temporal characteristics of laser pulse in a single shot. This project will be a demonstrator for the use of machine learning for real-time monitoring and control of UHI laser for particle acceleration.
 
For many years, 3H and 14C labelling of molecules of pharmaceutical interest has been performed to study their in vivo biodistribution in animal tissue sections through β-particles detection. Several techniques have been developed for this over time, first film autoradiography techniques, progressively replaced in most applications by digital β-imagers capable of high sensitivity, real-time imaging and radioactivity counting for absolute quantification of radioactive compounds in tissue sections. After the discovery of tumoral heterogeneity, research efforts characterizing cell heterogeneity affects have been at the heart of oncology research in the last decade, aiming for a better understanding of the causes and progression of the disease. This new perspective also allowed for cell-targeting drugs. In this context, OPTIMED-β aims at performing quantification of a low dose 3H labelled drug inside single cells thanks to a completely new Micromegas detector with an optical readout for the activity measurement of tritiated cells.
 
The PIRATE project aims to test the feasibility of using a new probe, inelastic neutron scattering (n,n'γ) at GANIL-SPIRAL2/NFS, to characterize the fine structure of pygmy dipole resonance (PDR). The neutron, in addition to being a pure nuclear probe, offers a new possibility to study the structure of PDR, complementary to the usual method, which consists in comparing the so-called isoscalar and isovector excitations. Indeed, while inelastic proton scattering preferentially probes the neutron component of a transition, inelastic neutron scattering is sensitive to the proton distribution. The comparison of the results obtained in (n,n'γ) and (p,p'γ) will allow to highlight the roles of protons and neutrons in PDR.
 
This project proposes to explore a new concept of detection opening the possibility to reach the ultimate threshold of about 1eV (creation of an electron-hole pair) in massive semiconductor detectors in Germanium and Silicon. This project, which is based on the use of a superconducting sensor deposited in thin film, allows to consider an innovative measurement of charges at very low temperature ((<100mK). By choosing a suitable sensor geometry, a significant part of the energy dissipated during charge transport in a semiconductor crystal can be transferred to a small volume of the superconducting sensor and give an easily measurable signal. This method should make it possible to lower by one to two orders of magnitude the energy threshold of massive semiconductor detectors (from 10 g to 1 kg), and is of major interest for ongoing experiments and future projects in the field of Astroparticles and nuclear physics (detection of dark matter, elastic coherent scattering of neutrinos, research on Solar Axions...).
 
#108 - Last update : 09/30 2021

 

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