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PRIN Bando 2020

 

Logo PRIN 2020

Photon detection in Extreme Environments for Fundamental and Applied Physics

  • Scientific PI per INFN Eugenio Scapparone
  • On going (Start date 17/05/2022 – End date 17/04/2025)

 

We propose to develop a novel read-out technology for cryogenic light detectors based on modern optoelectronics developed for high-bandwidth communication. The work-scope enhances the capability of large Liquid-Argon Time-Projection Chambers (LAr-TPCs), the underlying detector technology for rare-event searches with Italian roots, by improving detection of the argon scintillation light. The project addresses challenges in modern physics and advances a technology with significant broader impact. The former are pivotal to the discovery of the missing mass in the universe, called “Dark Matter,” and to the understanding of why matter dominates over anti-matter; the latter advance a novel light-collection technology that is profoundly transforming applications that improve everyday life and enhance the competitiveness of Italian industries.
DarkSide and DUNE are, respectively, the flagship experiments for dark matter searches at LNGS in Italy and for long-baseline neutrino oscillations at FNAL and SURF in the U.S.. Direct detection of dark matter would be a transformational discovery and would represent a watershed in the history of science. DarkSide will lead to the discovery, confirmation, or exclusion of dark matter (with mass >0.1 TeV/c2) down to the level where coherent scatters from atmospheric neutrinos start contributing to the background rate. The primary goal of DUNE is the discovery of charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector, which can clarify the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe while testing the three-neutrino paradigm in a conclusive manner.
Both Darkside and DUNE are large LAr-TPCs requiring detection of VUV (128 nm) scintillation light at cryogenic temperature (87 K). While technology exists for detecting the VUV light produced, both experiments must avoid using copper/metallic cables for signal transmission: DarkSide in order to minimize background from radioactivity in its signal transmission lines and DUNE to allow high potential for its new vertical-drift (DUNE VD) detector.
The Italian groups within DarkSide and DUNE propose an innovative solution to their common challenge: an opto-link, i.e., a cryogenic data-link based on optical fiber – the technology of modern data transfer. The opto-link enables data transmission from light detectors in cryogenic environments and at hundreds of kV of electric potential. For DarkSide, this enables readout of its 20 m2 of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) arrays using ultra-low radioactivity fused silica optical fiber. For DUNE, in conjunction with a novel Power-over-Fiber (PoF) system, it vastly improves the achievable light-detector coverage of the TPC surface by permitting operation at potentials up to 300 kV.
Performance of the cryogenic opto-link will be demonstrated by its implementation in light detectors with improved wavelength shifters for VUV scintillation photons and high-efficiency reflectors for trapping photons in the visible range.