XII International Workshop on Ring Imaging Cherenkov Detectors - RICH2025

Cherenkov radiation has characteristics that enable us to measure the velocity of the parent charged particle by means of the number of photons, the specific polar angle of the photon emission, and the timing of the photon detection. The precision of the velocity measurement depends on how well such information can be exploited. In fact, innovative developments of radiators, photosensors and...

At the Belle II experiment a Time-of-Propagation (TOP) counter is used for particle identification in the barrel region. This novel type of particle identification device combines the Cherenkov ring imaging technique with the time-of-flight. An overview of the operation and performance status of the TOP counter will be presented. We will discuss also a Geant-4 based Monte Carlo simulation,...

The Aerogel Ring Imaging CHerenkov (ARICH) detector is a key component of the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB collider in Tsukuba, Japan, designed to provide excellent charged particle identification in the forward region. The experiment aims to accumulate 50 times more data than its predecessor to enable precise studies of rare B and D meson decays, as well as tau lepton processes. The...

During the second LHC long shutdown (2019 -- 2021), the LHCb experiment underwent a major upgrade in order to be able to operate at the instantaneous luminosity of $2 \times 10^{33}~\mathrm{cm}^{-2}~\mathrm{s}^{-1}$, and remove the hardware trigger reading out every LHC bunch crossing. This instantaneous luminosity corresponds to illumination rates up to $100~\mathrm{MHz}/\mathrm{cm}{^2}$ on...

The ALICE experiment is designed to collect pp, p–A, and A–A collision data provided by the LHC, to investigate the properties of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions of temperature and energy density. Among the ALICE particle identification (PID) detectors, the High Momentum Particle Identification Detector (HMPID) is dedicated to the identification of charged hadrons. It...

The NA62 experiment is designed to measure the extremely rare kaon decay $K^{+} \rightarrow \pi^{+} \nu \bar{\nu}$ at the CERN SPS. This decay mode is highly sensitive to indirect effects of new physics at energy scales beyond the reach of current accelerators, and its branching ratio is predicted with high precision by the Standard Model to be below $10^{-10}$. One of the main experimental...

The RICH detector of the CLAS12 experiment at Jefferson Lab has been designated to separate kaons from pions and protons in the momentum range between 3 and 8 GeV/c.
The detector geometry is based on an innovative hybrid optics design, with Cherenkov photons that can be detected either directly or after one or more reflections on a mirror system.
Its main components are: i) high...

The GlueX experiment is located in experimental Hall D at Jefferson Lab (JLab) and provides a unique capability to search for hybrid mesons in high-energy photoproduction, utilizing a ~9 GeV linearly polarized photon beam. Since 2020 a Detector of Internally Reflected Cherenkov light (DIRC) has been in use at GlueX, utilizing components from the decommissioned BaBar DIRC. In this...

The concept of using the neutrino as an astronomical messenger is as old as the neutrino itself, and the challenge to open this new window on the high-energy universe has been technological in nature. We will describe how the IceCube Neutrino Observatory transformed a cubic kilometer of natural ice at the geographic South Pole into a neutrino telescope as well as discuss the technologies that...

The KM3NeT Collaboration is incrementally building two underwater Cherenkov neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. Both telescopes share the same technology for neutrino detection, by studying Cherenkov radiation from secondary charged particles produced in neutrino interactions. Photomultipliers are a common choice for the detection of Cherenkov radiation, but the hostile underwater...

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, though primarily designed for high-energy neutrinos, has become a powerful tool for studying MeV-scale neutrino bursts from astrophysical transients. This talk will provide an overview of recent efforts and developments aimed at enhancing IceCube’s capabilities in this energy regime, including searches for core-collapse supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and...

The measurement of the antideuteron flux in cosmic rays has been proposed as a probe towards the discovery of exotic sources, due to a smaller background from more ordinary process with respect to the antiproton flux in the low energy region of the spectrum. This comes from the higher mass of the antideuteron with respect to the antiproton, which leads to the suppression of its production from...

Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays are strong photodetector candidates for future RICH detectors owing to their excellent single-photon detection efficiency, time resolution and fine granularity. The main challenge in operating SiPM arrays is the dark-count rate (DCR), especially after irradiation damage. Operation at cryogenic temperature effectively mitigates the DCR. The design and...

Silica aerogel has gained increasing popularity over the past few decades as a Cherenkov radiator, thanks to its exceptional properties. One of its most distinctive features is the ability to finely tune its refractive index to meet the specific requirements of various RICH detectors for future HEP experiments, such as the ALICE 3-RICH and the ePIC-dRICH detectors. At the INFN Bari...

ALCOR (A Low-power Chip for Optical sensor Readout) is a mixed-signal ASIC designed for the readout of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) sensors and developed in the framework of the ePIC dual-radiator RICH (dRICH) detector at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The current version of ALCOR integrates 32 channels, arranged in an 8×4 matrix, to provide a precise time measurement with...

Detector-related systematics effects will become increasingly critical in the planned ''LS3-enhancements'' and ''Upgrade-II'' phases for the RICH detectors of the LHCb experiments at CERN LHC, due to the large photo-detector occupancy caused by the large particle flux in the high-luminosity environment.
Therefore, the requirements for calibration, alignment and monitoring will be even more...

The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment (CBM) at FAIR is designed to explore the QCD phase diagram at high baryon densities with interaction rates up to 10 MHz using triggerless free-streaming data acquisition. The CBM Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector (RICH) contributes to the overall PID by identification of electrons from the lowest momenta up to 6-8 GeV/c, with a pion suppression factor of...

We present the development and experimental characterisation of a novel photodetector configuration designed for water Cherenkov detectors, aimed at future use in high-energy gamma-ray observatories. The design consists of a small-area photomultiplier tube (PMT) coupled with a wavelength-shifting (WLS) plate, which aims to increase the effective light collection area by converting and guiding...

The High Energy Light Isotope eXperiment (HELIX), a balloon-borne detector targeting 3% mass resolution for cosmic-ray isotope composition, uses a Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) with aerogel radiators (n=1.155, 1 cm thick) for velocity measurements above 1 GeV/n. Achieving the mass resolution requires a velocity resolution of 0.1%, necessitating characterization of the aerogel radiator's...

The LHCb experiment is planning a major detector upgrade for the LHC RUN5 (2035) to cope with the foreseen instantaneous peak luminosity of ∼ 1.0 − 1.5 × 1034 cm$^{−2}$s$^{−1}$. For the RICH Upgrade-II detectors, new photo-sensors are under study since the present MaPMTs cannot stand the high particle flux in the central high occupancy region in a very harsh environment.

Silicon Photo...

The Electron-ion collider in China (EicC) is a proposed future electron-ion collider with a high luminosity above 2.0 × 10^33 cm^2·s^−1 and center-of-mass energy ranging from 15 to 20 GeV. Excellent particle identification (PID) with large momentum coverage is crucial for investigating exclusive and semi-inclusive processes, as well as enabling precise 3D imaging of the nucleon structure in...

Abstract content is in the attached summary file: RICH2025abstract-ksuzuki.pdf

To meet the growing demand for photosensors with high time resolution, large photocoverage, and low cost in Cherenkov imaging detectors, we have developed a gaseous photomultiplier (GasPM). It has a photocathode and a simple electron multiplication mechanism similar to that of resistive plate chambers. Using a picosecond pulse laser, we have already demonstrated that the GasPM with a LaB$_6$...

The TORCH time-of-flight detector is part of a proposed upgrade of the LHCb detector foreseen for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. The detector comprises an array of modules each comprising a fused-silica radiator plate of size 66 cm-by-250 cm-by-1 cm. The modules are designed to have a minimal depth and are supported using a light-weight carbon-fibre structure, designed to minimise the...

As the core photoelectric conversion device in Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors, the microchannel plate photomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT) exhibits dynamic response characteristics that critically determine the spatial resolution accuracy of particle trajectory reconstruction. Under high-flux detection conditions, the nonlinear gain attenuation caused by electron cloud saturation effects...

This study presents the development of a high-precision time measurement system for Micro-Channel Plate Photomultiplier Tubes, combining a custom front-end electronics ASIC and a Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) ASIC. The system aims to improve the time resolution of current photon detector, enabling critical applications in high-energy physics experiments, such as particle identification and...

Analyzing data from Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) requires large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of air showers and the detailed simulation of telescope optics and Cherenkov camera. Within the simulation of the telescope response, optical ray-tracing and camera electronics are the most time-consuming parts. Fortunately, these tasks involve many independent calculations (photon...

The Large Area Picosecond Photodetector (LAPPD) is a commercially available photon detector based on microchannel plate technology (MCP), which has garnered significant attention from the scientific community due to its large size, outstanding timing resolution, high gain, and low dark count rate. With a large sensitive area of $200\times200$ mm$^2$, the LAPPD is particularly appealing for...

The MANTRA project is an inter-university effort to develop an algorithm to measure anti-neutron momentum using existing detectors installed in the BESIII and Belle II experiments. Both experiments are equipped with CsI electromagnetic calorimeters: these provide a loose measurement of the anti-neutron energy, which is heavily affected by shower containment. This can be mitigated by using the...

Innovations to reduce afterpulsing, develop MCP-PMTs with 6 um microchannel plates for improved time resolution and rate capacity and a compact position sensitive MCP-PMT are in progress at Incom. A hydrophobic ALD film has been developed for use on top of an MgO secondary electron emission film. It is intended to reject water layers from air exposure, thereby reducing the load of adsorbed...

Sven Peter for the CBM-RICH collaboration

This poster presents the progress of the mechanical design, mirror properties and mirror alignment monitoring system of the Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector for the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR.

CBM is designed to explore the phase structure of strongly interacting matter at high net-baryon densities and moderate...

Water Cherenkov detectors (WCDs) are widely used in gamma-ray astronomy. At high altitudes (>4000 m a.s.l.), where detectors such as those in the LAGO network, HAWC, and the upcoming SWGO operate, gamma-induced air showers can be detected more efficiently due to reduced atmospheric absorption. However, the harsh conditions at these sites make regular maintenance and calibration extremely...

The design of the LHCb/RICH optical systems operating during the current Run-3 data-taking period of the LHC, will be presented with its full characterisation, to set the realistic reference for the similar designs begin developed for the envisaged Upgrade-II, which requires more stringent requirements.
Designs for Upgrade-II are then presented and analytically compared with the reference one...

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are widespread photon detectors in high-energy physics. Their performance degrades significantly when exposed to radiation, particularly high-energy hadrons (neutrons or protons) that induce defects in the silicon lattice. A moderate level of radiation causes damage in SiPMs, leading to an increase in dark current and dark count rate (DCR) and potentially...

The Belle II experiment produces large numbers of B mesons by colliding electrons and positrons at the Υ(4S) resonance (√s = 10.58 GeV). It aims to validate the Standard Model precisely, search for new physics, and elucidate the internal structure of hadrons. The target integrated luminosity is 50 ab-1, fifty times larger than the previous B-factory experiment.
The Time-of-Propagation (TOP)...

We are preparing a spectroscopy experiment of $\Xi$ and $\Omega$ baryons at the $\pi20$ beamline, a secondary particle beamline of the high-momentum beamline at J-PARC. We utilize negatived kaons as incident particles with momenta ranging from 5.0 to 8.5 GeV/c. An unseparated secondary beam contains, however, approximately 100 times the amount of pions as a background, and the number of...

The timing performance of photodetector is a critical parameter for the development of Radiation Imaging Detectors based on Time Of Flight (TOF) technique, notably in applications like TOF Positron Emission Tomography (TOF-PET). The small size Microchannel Plate Photomultiplier (MCP-PMT), also referred to as Fast timing MCP-PMT (FPMT), is a popular candidate photodetector of TOF-PET for its...

Multi-anode Microchannel Plate (MCP) detectors offer distinct advantages, including timing resolutions below 30 ps, single-photon sensitivity, and a modular architecture. Advancements in High-Energy Physics experiments—such as the TORCH project—are driving the need for increased photon rate capability and higher spatial resolution granularity of detector designs. This study presents...

High-precision time-resolved detectors are core technologies in fields such as particle physics, nuclear physics, and medical imaging, with their performance critically depending on the decay time, light yield of ultrafast scintillation crystals, and the temporal response characteristics of fast photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Traditional materials like LYSO and BGO, which suffer from slow...

Particle identification plays a critical role in the core physics program of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). A dual-radiator Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector (dRICH) will provide hadron identification over a momentum range from a 3 GeV/c up to 50 GeV/c in the forward region of the ePIC experiment. The ePIC dRICH will also perform pion rejection to identify electrons in order to reconstruct DIS...

In recent years, Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors have explored new photon detection technologies to improve timing, spatial, and amplitude resolutions. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) fulfill the requirements for future experiments in high-energy physics, such as single-photon resolution, picosecond timing precision, and high photon detection efficiency. However, they suffer from high...

In the next generation of experiments in high energy particle physics a large increase in beam interaction density will necessitate upgrades of particle detectors. Examples are the Ring imaging Cherenkov detectors (RICH) in the planned upgrades of the LHCb, Belle II and ALICE 3 experiments. The upgraded RICH detectors will need photo detectors capable of detecting rings of Cherenkov photons at...

The Aerogel Ring Imaging CHerenkov (ARICH) counter of the Belle II spectrometer performs particle identification by detecting Cherenkov ring images from the aerogel radiator using Hybrid Avalanche Photo Detectors (HAPDs). Belle II will operate into the 2040s targeting 50 /ab integrated luminosity. To support extended operation and improve particle identification efficiency, an ARICH upgrade is...

An international collaboration composed of Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Swiss institutes, is developing the advanced camera (AdvCam), the next-generation camera for Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), designed specifically for the Large-Sized Telescopes (LSTs) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). AdvCam incorporates cutting-edge Silicon photomultipliers and a...

A novel ASIC, called the FastRICH, is designed and produced for the front-end electronics of single-photon detectors in future RICH detectors. Owing to the prompt Cherenkov radiation and precise optical arrangement of RICH detectors, the Cherenkov photon time-of-arrival can be used to improve the particle identification performance. The 24.4 ps detector hit timestamps provided by the FastRICH...

The readout electronics chain of the LHCb RICH sub-detectors will be upgraded during LS3 Enhancements program scheduled for the 3rd LHC long shutdown. A novel front-end application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) has been custom designed as the main core of the future RICH readout electronics. The FastRICH is implemented by using TSMC’s 65 nm CMOS technology node together with several...

The CBM (Compressed Baryonic Matter) experiment to be built at the future FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany aims to investigate the QCD phase diagram at high-net baryon densities and moderate temperatures. The FAIR accelerator will provide high-intensity heavy-ion beams for this fixed target experiment. To ensure the best operability of CBM at day one, a prototype of CBM has been set up,...

We present the concept of the next-generation DIRC (xpDIRC), a
novel detector geometry under development for next-generation particle
Identification systems. Building upon the high-performance DIRC
(hpDIRC) designed for the ePIC detector at the Electron-Ion Collider
(EIC), the xpDIRC introduces a hybrid optical architecture featuring
enhanced focusing optics, a wide-plate light guide, and...

Water Cherenkov detectors (WCDs) provide a durable and cost-effective solution for real-time radiation monitoring by exploiting Cherenkov light emitted when charged particles exceed the speed of light in water. This work introduces a two-stage classification framework for gamma-neutron source discrimination: a physics-driven energy threshold filters out unambiguous low-energy gamma sources,...

Water Cherenkov Detectors (WCDs), traditionally employed in particle physics to detect cosmic rays, are now being repurposed for a groundbreaking application: precision soil moisture monitoring via neutron sensing. This method offers distinct advantages over conventional neutron probes, including possible enhanced sensitivity to low moisture levels and the ability to cover larger soil volumes...

In 2021, LHAASO observed a large number of PeV cosmic ray candidates in the Milky Way. We proposed to build a telescope with at least 30 times the sensitive volume of the IceCube detector, so as to observe those LHAAASO sources. In order to realize this project, we innovatively put forward a photosensitive detector unit based on a photomultiplier tube with a maximum photosensitive area of 20...

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a state-of-the-art neutrino physics experiment located in South China. With 20 ktons of ultra-pure Liquid Scintillator, JUNO aims to achieve groundbreaking measurements, including the determination of Neutrino Mass Ordering and the precise measurement of three neutrino oscillation parameters with sub-percent precision. The central...

The Hyper-Kamiokande experiment is a next-generation underground water Cherenkov detector designed to explore CP violation, proton decay, and astrophysical neutrino sources with unprecedented sensitivity. To enhance photodetection capabilities, both the far detector (FD) and the Intermediate Water Cherenkov Detector (IWCD) incorporate novel multi-PMT modules. Each module integrates nineteen...

The Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector aboard the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) has been operating successfully on the International Space Station since 2011. The RICH detector, based on a proximity focusing design, features a dual-radiator configuration with sodium fluoride tiles at the center surrounded by silica aero gel tiles, and a matrix of 680 multi-anode photomultiplier...

LHAASO using large area water Cherenkov for CR air shower detection in the energy range from 0.5 to 20 TeV for gamma ray astronomic observation of mainly extragalactic objects. The water cherenkov detectors are burried 2.5 m beneath the surface to measure muons in showers in LHAASO. The largest muon detector array with the active area of 40k square meters in the CR detction history provides...

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world’s largest cosmic-ray observatory, dedicated to the study of ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays with energies above 10¹⁷ eV. This overview talk presents recent results and ongoing research across a wide range of topics aimed at elucidating the origin, composition, and interactions of these enigmatic particles. Key highlights include...

The Latin American Giant Observatory (LAGO) is a collaborative initiative that deploys a network of low-cost, autonomous Water Cherenkov Detectors (WCDs) across Latin America and Spain. Initially focused on detecting gamma-ray bursts at high-altitude sites, LAGO has evolved into a multidisciplinary platform for astroparticle physics, space weather studies, and environmental monitoring. Its...

The Southern Wide-field Gamma-Ray Observatory (SWGO) will be a next-generation gamma-ray observatory located in the Southern Hemisphere. Building upon the experience of previous and current ground-based particle array observatories, SWGO will feature a large detection area, a high-altitude site, and a southern location to explore the gamma-ray sky up to PeV energies. Following the recent site...

The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is a project whose objective is to advance knowledge of the gamma-ray sky with the largest gamma-ray observatory ever built. The CTAO will consist of two Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) arrays, with more than 60 telescopes. One of them is under construction in the northern hemisphere, at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory...

In 2024, the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) released its first catalog of ultra-high-energy (UHE) gamma-ray sources, identifying over 40 such sources. This marked a significant advancement in UHE gamma-ray astronomy. Many of these sources exhibit extended features, necessitating next-generation Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) with higher angular resolution...

The maximum photon detection efficiency (PDE) of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) can be comparable to or even exceed that of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). There are experiments where the signal is measured in the presence of strong background light. Considering PDE alone can lead to wrong conclusions and results, one needs to accurately assess the signal-to-noise ratio. Imaging atmospheric...

Imaging with Cherenkov telescopes was a breakthrough for gamma ray astronomy. However, by pushing Cherenkov telescopes to ever higher precision and ever larger sizes our upcoming generation of telescopes has reached the intrinsic limits of imaging itself. Aberrations limit our field-of-view and our possible angular resolution in the gamma-ray sky. The square-cube-law escalates the costs to...

As RICH detector technologies evolve and data volumes increase, innovative pattern recognition and data analysis methods have become essential to fully exploit the capabilities of RICH systems. This talk presents an overview of recent developments in this domain, highlighting both methodological advancements and practical implementations across current and next-generation experiments. We...

NA62 is the last generation kaon experiment at the CERN SPS aiming to study the ultra-rare $K^+ \rightarrow \pi^+ \nu \overline{\nu}$ decay, measuring its branching ratio with a precision better than $20\%$.
One of the challenging aspect of NA62 is the suppression of background decay channels with branching ratios up to 10 orders of magnitude higher than the signal and with a similar...

The LHCb RICH detectors will introduce timing information $\mathcal{O}(100\,$ps) for every detected photon during the LHC Run 4. Using the RICH time information, the primary vertex time (PV t$_0$) can be estimated for the first time in LHCb, which is a key input parameter for exploiting fast-timing techniques in the experiment. In the RICH reconstruction algorithm, an object called a photon...

The ePIC experiment at EIC integrates a dual-radiator RICH (dRICH) detector for particle identification in the forward region. The detector will use silicon photomul tipliers (SiPMs) to detect Cherenkov radiation with single-photon sensitivity over a surface of ∼3 m2. The ∼320k detector channels will be readout by 4,992 Front End Boards (FEBs); each of the 1,248 Readout Boards (RDOs) will...

Particle Identification (PID) will be crucial in Future Circular Colliders (FCC-ee) or other Higgs Factory experiments for precision studies involving heavy-flavour particles in Z decays, as well as jet flavour tagging in the decays of Higgs, W, and top particles.
In this context, a novel Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector concept, named ARC (Array of RICH Cells), has been proposed.
The...

CMOS-based individual SPAD detectors and arrays have seen a host of applications being explored and industrialised in the past years, relying on their single-photon detection capability, combined with excellent photon-timing precision and noiseless read-out (in the digital flavour). Manufactured in standard CMOS technologies, their sensitivity spans the entire spectrum, from NUV to NIR.
We...

Invited review talk

The dual-radiator Ring Imaging Cherenkov (dRICH) detector of the ePIC experiment at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will make use of SiPM sensors for the detection of the emitted Cherenkov light. The photodetector will cover $\sim$ 3 m$^2$ with 3$\times$3 mm$^2$ pixels, for a total of more than 300000 readout channels and will be the first application of SiPMs for single-photon...

Microchannel Plate Photomultiplier Tubes (MCP-PMT) devices represent the state-of-the-art in terms of picosecond timing resolution combined with low noise, high gain, and radiation hardness. However, with experiment upgrades producing higher luminosities, there are concerns over the ability of the existing technologies to achieve sufficiently high rates and longer tube lifetime in terms of...

Finely pixelated Micro-Channel Plate Photomultipliers (MCP-PMTs) are vacuum photosensors often used in Imaging Cherenkov detectors, such as Belle II TOP, future LHCb TORCH and PANDA DIRC detectors, as well as ePIC pfRICH and hpDIRC. This type of PMTs can have gain up to 10^7 and higher, timing resolution below 50 ps and sub-mm position resolution in a single photon mode, as well as peak...

The PANDA experiment at FAIR will use two DIRC detectors for charged particle identification via Cherenkov light. Given the harsh radiation environment and the placement of the photosensors in magnetic fields of ~1 Tesla, Microchannel Plate Photomultiplier Tubes (MCP-PMTs) were selected as the designated sensors to fulfill the stringent requirements for the DIRCs. For the Barrel DIRC, 155...

The Fast Interaction Trigger (FIT) detector of the ALICE apparatus at LHC includes a Cherenkov subsystem utilizing 52 Planacon XP85002/FIT-Q microchannel plate-based photomultiplier tubes (MCP-PMTs). Operating in the forward rapidity region of ALICE since 2021, these devices sustain radiation load equivalent to ~10^12 1-MeV n_eqv/cm^2 hadron fluence and ~100 kRad total ionizing dose. Moreover,...

The Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Experiment (ANNIE) is a 26-ton Fermilab-based effort studying neutrino cross-section physics on a water target, with particular attention to final-state neutron yields. The goal of ANNIE’s physics program is to better understand and constrain key systematic uncertainties on next-generation neutrino oscillation experiments. ANNIE is also a leading R&D platform...

We introduce a novel single-photon detector that incorporates a vacuum tube design featuring a photocathode, a microchannel plate (MCP), and a Timepix4 CMOS ASIC serving as the readout anode. Designed to handle detection rates of up to $10^9$ photons per second over a $7\,\text{cm}^2$ active area, the system achieves spatial resolution between $5$-$10\,\mu\text{m}$ and timing resolution better...

This study presents a comprehensive characterization of Large Area Picosecond Photodetectors (LAPPD) of Generation II, developed by Incom Inc., with a focus on their applicability in high-performance timing and imaging systems such as RICH detectors (e.g., Belle II ARICH, LHCb RICH) and time-of-flight PET imaging. LAPPDs combine single-photon sensitivity, ~30 ps time resolution,...

Large Area Picosecond Photon Detectors (LAPPDs) and High Rate Picosecond Photon Detectors (HRPPDs) are large area Micro-Channel Plate-PMTs (MCP-PMTs) resulting from a long-lasting collaboration between academy and industry. The atomic layer deposition technique that improves the MCP-PMT lifetime has been introduced within this development. These photosensors have a very good time resolution...

The DRD4 international Collaboration has been formed at the beginning of 2024 following the ECFA Detector R&D Roadmap. The scope of the Collaboration, which is anchored at CERN, is to bundle and boost R&D activities in photodetector technology and particle identification techniques for building future high-energy physics (HEP) experiments and facilities. DRD4 also covers scintillating fibre...

Cherenkov light imaging is expected to play a critical role in charged particle identification across a wide kinematic phase space in many upcoming particle and nuclear physics experiments worldwide, in particular in the filed of hadronic physics, flavor physics and for electron-positron colliders.

Extensive R&D efforts are underway on multiple fronts of Cherenkov imaging technology,...

The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment (CBM) is a main scientific pillar of FAIR, the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research, currently being constructed in Darmstadt, Germany. CBM will study the phase diagram of baryonic matter in regions of moderate temperature and large baryonic chemical potential, reaching net baryon densities several times larger than ordinary nuclear matter....

Among other physics goals, the PANDA experiment at the FAIR facility at GSI will perform charmonium spectroscopy and search for gluonic excitations using high luminosity antiproton beams from 1.5 to 15 GeV/c. To achieve these scientific objectives, a high performance particle identification (PID) system is required, in particular a kaon/pion separation up to 4 GeV/c. Because of space...

The dual radiator Ring Imaging Cherenkov (dRICH) detector is part of the particle identification system in the forward (ion-side) end-cap of the ePIC detector and complements the forward time-of-flight system and calorimetry.

The dRICH is required to provide continuous hadron identification from ~3 GeV/c to ~50 GeV/c, and to supplement electron and positron identification from a few...

The Electron-Proton/Ion Collider Experiment (ePIC) will be a large, multi-purpose detector to be installed at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) being built at Brookhaven National Laboratory. As robust particle identification (PID) capabilities are essential for fully realizing the EIC science program, ePIC contains several PID subsystems spanning different angular ranges. PID capability in the...

The high-performance DIRC (hpDIRC) detector for the ePIC experiment
at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) has progressed into an
advanced development stage, transitioning from simulation-driven
design to component validation and integration testing.
The baseline design, optimized through detailed and
test-beam-validated Geant4 simulations, features a novel 3-layer
spherical lens,...

The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) will present unprecedented opportunities for precision flavour physics, along with new challenges for detector performance in extreme conditions. As part of the LHCb Upgrade II program, the Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors are undergoing a comprehensive redesign to meet the demands of increased luminosity, higher track multiplicities, and tighter timing...

The TORCH time-of-flight detector is part of a proposed upgrade of the LHCb experiment, foreseen for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. The TORCH detector aims to provide particle identification of hadrons in the sub-10 GeV/c momentum range, exploiting the prompt production of Cherenkov photons in an array of fused-silica plates. Photons are propagated to the periphery of the detector via...

A DIRC-like TOF (DTOF) detector is chosen for particle identification (PID) at the super tau-charm facility (STCF) in the endcap region. A total timing precision of 50 ps (DTOF intrinsic ~30 ps) is required to achieve 4σ separation of π/K up to 2 GeV/c momentum, by combining both the TOF measurement and the multi-dimensional (timing-positional) information of Cherenkov photons. In this...

The ALICE Collaboration is proposing a completely new apparatus, ALICE 3, for the LHC Run 5 and beyond. The design target of the ALICE 3 charged particle identification (PID) system is to ensure a better than 3σ e/π, π/K and K/p separation for momenta up to 2 GeV/c, 10 GeV/c and 16 GeV/c, respectively. A key PID subsystem in the barrel region (|𝜂|<2) will be a proximity-focusing Ring-Imaging...

ALADDIN is a proposed fixed-target experiment at the LHC (Letter of Intent submitted and reviewed by the LHCC; Technical Design Report in preparation) designed to measure the electromagnetic dipole moments of the $\Lambda_c^+$ and $\Xi_c^+$ baryons. Protons from the LHC beam halo are deflected onto a fixed solid target, producing highly boosted charm baryons. These baryons are then channeled...

Saturated fluorocarbons (SFCs: CnF(2n+2)) are chosen for their optical properties as Cherenkov radiators, with C4F10 and CF4 currently used at CERN in the COMPASS and LHCb RICH detectors. New RICH detectors are being considered, which might again use C2F6 as a radiator gas, possibly blended with CO2.
Non-toxicity, nonconductivity, non-flammability and radiation resistance has also made...

This talk will give an overview of the electronics requirements for today’s and future RICH detectors. Key challenges in the design of RICH detectors are reviewed along with their impact on front-end electronics designs. This includes requirements for resolution in space and time, signal coupling to single-photon sensors and front-end data processing. Additional detector integration aspects...

Excellent PID is an essential requirement of the ePIC experiment at the EIC, where hadron identification in the forward region will be provided by the dRICH detector, using as radiators both aerogel and gas.
The motivation for the choice of hexafluoroethane (C2F6) as dRICH radiator gas is illustrated and the challenges related to this choice are discussed.
The main requirements on the...

Nuova Officina Assergi (NOA) is a novel semiconductor facility located at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) and operational since the beginning of 2023. According to the ISO-14644-1 standard, it has been classified an ISO-6 clean room and it extends over a surface of 420 m2. The infrastructure is divided in two experimental areas with a reduced radon concentration. A larger...

The next generation of Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors imposes stringent requirements on photon detection technologies.
Silicon Photo-Multipliers (present on the market with different brand names, including SiPM and MPPC), offering
high photon detection efficiency ($\gtrsim 0.5$) in the near-UV,
fine granularity down to one mm pixel size,
excellent timing performance of the...

In the framework of the DRD4 Collaboration, work package 4.4, dedicated R&Ds are ongoing on the coupling of a thin Cherenkov radiator to Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays for precise charged particle Time-of-Flight (TOF) measurements. Cherenkov prompt radiation emission is indeed ideal for ultimate timing performance for a TOF detector. A thin radiation with high refractive index as...

The latest research results on developing hydrophobic silica aerogel as a Cherenkov radiator are reported. Previously, our benchmark for the aerogel’s optical property was a transmission length of 40 mm at a 400-nm wavelength for a refractive index of 1.05. The maximum size of a single tile with no mechanical cracking was 18 cm × 18 cm × 2 cm while ensuring hydrophobic quality. These...