Preparing the Big Bite Hadron Detector Package

Gordon Lott, Virginia TechMentor: Douglas Higinbotham

•All the signals from the PMTs are sent via cable to a series of nuclear instrument modules (NIM) which amplify the signal and convert the analog signal to a digital signal.

•All detector hardware was assembled in an organized fashion for easy troubleshooting and repair. •The whole system was tested with cosmic rays to find and fix problems.

•This work put the detector in complete working order and checked the quality of the setup.

•The tested package will only need to be moved into Hall A for the experiment.

Single photoelectron peak

Acknowledgements.

Douglas Higinbotham, Bryan Moffit, Xiaohui Zhan, Jan Tyler, Lisa Surles-Law, Ida Rodriguez, Brent Terres, Scott Lahr, Emily Sykes thank you for all your help I have learned a lot because of you.

Original SRC Frame

New Frame

•Particle detectors are a basic part of nuclear and high energy research.

•The BigBite Hadron detector is going to be used in an up coming Jefferson Lab Hall A experiment.

•The package uses dipole called BigBite to bend the particles going towards the detector.

•The package was modified from a previous setup.

•The package is made up of a two layer scintillator plane and two wire drift chambers.

The Hadron Detector

•When a charged particle passes through scintillator it creates photons.

•The photons travel to the ends of the scintillator and into photomultiplier tubes (PMTs).

•The PMT changes the photon into an electric pulse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photomultiplier

The Assembly and Testing of the BigBite Hadron Detector System. GORDON E. LOTT (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA

24061) DOUGLAS W. HIGINBOTHAM (Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606).

Scintillator detectors are a basic part of nuclear and high energy physics research. When a charged particle passes through a scintillator it creates photons. The photons travel to the ends of the scintillator and into photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) which turn the photons into an electric pulse. The BigBite Hadron particle detector package has a scintillator plane made of two layers of 24 scintillator bars. This project focuses on this detector package which will be used in a Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Hall A experiment next year and its scintillator plane and electronics needed to be assembled. All the PMTs were connected to labeled high voltage (HV) cables and signal cables. The signal cables were connected to a series of nuclear instrument modules (NIM) which amplify the signal and convert the analog signal to a digital signal. The different NIM modules needed for logic and triggering were arranged and cabled in an organized fashion for easy troubleshooting and repair. The HV cables were connected to LeCroy high voltage supplies. The whole system was tested with cosmic rays to find problems. This assembly and testing put the detector in complete working order and verified the quality of the set up. The prepared package can now be moved into Hall A for the experiment.

Testing and ResultsThe DAQ Setup

The ScintillatorAbstract

Sample A1 PMT Spectrum