A Cherenkov Radiation Detector with High Density Aerogels

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and testing of a Cherenkov detector using high-density aerogels with specific refractive indices to identify muons in a certain momentum range, including optical property analysis and test beam results.

Contribution

It introduces a Cherenkov detector utilizing high-density aerogels with specific refractive indices, which is a novel approach for muon identification in the 230-350 MeV/c range.

Findings

Aerogel samples with n=1.03, 1.07, 1.12 were characterized.

Optical properties of the aerogels were examined.

Test beam results demonstrated detector performance.

Abstract

We have designed a threshold Cherenkov detector at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory to identify muons with momenta between 230 and 350 MeV/c. We investigated the properties of three aerogels for the design. The nominal indexes of refraction were n = 1.03, 1.07, 1.12, respectively. Two of the samples are of high density aerogel not commonly used for Cherenkov light detection. We present results of an examination of some optical properties of the aerogel samples and present basic test beam results.