More Like this

1. Fast neutron background characterization of the future Ricochet experiment at the ILL research nuclear reactor

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-11150-x  

   Augier, C. ; Baulieu, G. ; Belov, V. ; Berge, L. ; Billard, J. ; Bres, G. ; Bret, J-. L. ; Broniatowski, A. ; Calvo, M. ; Cazes, A. ; et al ( January 2023 , The European Physical Journal C)

   The futureRicochetexperiment aims at searching for new physics in the electroweak sector by providing a high precision measurement of the Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CENNS) process down to the sub-100 eV nuclear recoil energy range. The experiment will deploy a kg-scale low-energy-threshold detector array combining Ge and Zn target crystals 8.8 m away from the 58 MW research nuclear reactor core of the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France. Currently, theRicochetCollaboration is characterizing the backgrounds at its future experimental site in order to optimize the experiment’s shielding design. The most threatening background component, which cannot be actively rejected by particle identification, consists of keV-scale neutron-induced nuclear recoils. These initial fast neutrons are generated by the reactor core and surrounding experiments (reactogenics), and by the cosmic rays producing primary neutrons and muon-induced neutrons in the surrounding materials. In this paper, we present theRicochetneutron background characterization using$$^3$$${}^3$He proportional counters which exhibit a high sensitivity to thermal, epithermal and fast neutrons. We compare these measurements to theRicochetGeant4 simulations to validate our reactogenic and cosmogenic neutron background estimations. Eventually, we present our estimated neutron background for the futureRicochetexperiment and the resulting CENNS detection significance. Our results show that depending on the effectiveness of the muon veto, we expect a total nuclear recoil background rate between 44 ± 3 and 9 ± 2 events/day/kg in the CENNS region of interest, i.e. between 50 eV and 1 keV. We therefore found that theRicochetexperiment should reach a statistical significance of 4.6 to 13.6 $$\sigma $$$\sigma$for the detection of CENNS after one reactor cycle, when only the limiting neutron background is considered.

    

   more » « less
2. Photovoltaic Response of Thin-Film CdTe Solar Cells under Accelerated Neutron Radiation in a TRIGA Reactor

   Powell, Kaden ; Lund, Matthew ; Wang, Meng-Jen ; Qian, Yang ; Magginetti, David ; Reese, Matthew ; Cazalas, Edward ; Sjoden, Glenn ; Yoon, Heayoung ( June 2020 , Electronic Materials Symposium)

   Cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells are a promising photovoltaic (PV) technology for producing power in space owing to their high-efficiency (> 22.1 %), potential for specific power, and cost-effective manufacturing processes. In contrast to traditional space PVs, the high-Z (atomic number) CdTe absorbers can be intrinsically robust under extreme space radiation, offering long-term stability. Despite these advantages, the performance assessment of CdTe solar cells under high-energy particle irradiation (e.g., photons, neutrons, charged particles) is limited in the literature, and their stability is not comprehensively studied. In this work, we present the PV response of n-CdS / p-CdTe PVs under accelerated neutron irradiation. We measure PV properties of the devices at different neutron/photon doses. The equivalent dose deposited in the CdTe samples is simulated with deterministic and Monte Carlo radiation transport methods. Thin-film CdTe solar cells were synthesized on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrate (≈ 4 cm × 4 cm). CdS:O (≈ 100 nm) was reactively RF sputtered in an oxygen/argon ambient followed by a close-spaced sublimation deposition of CdTe (≈ 3.5 μm) in an oxygen/helium ambient. The sample was exposed to a 10 min vapor CdCl2 in oxygen/helium ambient at 430˚C. The samples were exposed to a wet CuCl2 solution prior to anneal 200ºC. A gold back-contact was formed on CdTe via thermal evaporation. The final sample contains 16 CdTe devices. For neutron irradiation, we cleaved the CdTe substrate into four samples and exposed two samples to ≈ 90 kW reactor power neutron radiation for 5.5 hours and 8.2 hours, respectively, in our TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) reactor. We observed a noticeable color change of the glass substrates to brown after the neutron/gamma reactor exposure. Presumably, the injected high-energy neutrons caused the breaking of chemical bonds and the displacement of atoms in the glass substrates, creating point defects and color centers. The I-V characteristics showed noticeable deterioration with over 8 hour radiations. Specifically, the saturation current of the control devices was ≈ 25 nA increasing to 1 μA and 10 μA for the 5.5-hour and 8.2-hour radiated samples, respectively. The turn-on voltage of the control devices (≈ 0.85 V) decreased with the irradiated sample (≈ 0.75 V for 5.5-hour and ≈ 0.5 V for 8.2-hour exposures), implying noticeable radiation damage occurred at the heterojunction. The higher values of the ideality factor for irradiated devices (n > 2.2) compared to that of the control devices (n ≈ 1.3) also support the deterioration of the p-n junction. We observed the notable decrease in shunt resistance (RSH) and the increase in series resistance (Rs) with the neutron dose. It is possible that Cu ions introduced during the CuCl2 treatment may migrate into CdTe grain boundaries (GBs). The presence of Cu ions at GBs can create additional leakage paths for photocarrier transport, deteriorating the overall PV performance. We estimated the radiation dose of CdTe in comparison to Si (conventional PV) using a UUTR model (e.g., MCNP6 2D UTR Reactor simulations). In this model, we simulated Si and CdTe at the center point of the triangular fuel lattice and used an “unperturbed flux” tally in the water. Our simulations yielded a dose rate of 6916 Gy/s of neutrons and 16 Gy/s of photons for CdTe, and 1 Gy/s of neutrons and 21 Gy/s of photons for Si (doses +/- <1%). The large dose rate of neutrons in CdTe is mainly attributed to the large thermal neutron absorption cross-section of 113Cd. Based on this estimation, we calculate that the exposure of our CdTe PVs is equivalent to several million years in LEO (Low-Earth Orbit), or about 10,000 years for Si in LEO. Currently, we are working on a low-dose neutron/photon radiation on CdTe PVs and their light I-Vs and microstructural characterizations to gain better understanding on the degradation of CdTe PVs. 

   more » « less
3. Space Radiation and Plasma Effects on Satellites and Aviation: Quantities and Metrics for Tracking Performance of Space Weather Environment Models

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2018SW002042  

   Zheng, Yihua ; Ganushkina, Natalia Yu ; Jiggens, Pier ; Jun, Insoo ; Meier, Matthias ; Minow, Joseph I. ; O'Brien, T. Paul ; Pitchford, Dave ; Shprits, Yuri ; Tobiska, W. Kent ; et al ( October 2019 , Space Weather)

   The Community Coordinated Modeling Center has been leading community‐wide space science and space weather model validation projects for many years. These efforts have been broadened and extended via the newly launched International Forum for Space Weather Modeling Capabilities Assessment (https://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/assessment/). Its objective is to track space weather models' progress and performance over time, a capability that is critically needed in space weather operations and different user communities in general. The Space Radiation and Plasma Effects Working Team of the aforementioned International Forum works on one of the many focused evaluation topics and deals with five different subtopics (https://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/assessment/topics/radiation‐all.php) and varieties of particle populations: Surface Charging from tens of eV to 50‐keV electrons and internal charging due to energetic electrons from hundreds keV to several MeVs. Single‐event effects from solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays (several MeV to TeV), total dose due to accumulation of doses from electrons (>100 keV) and protons (>1 MeV) in a broad energy range, and radiation effects from solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays at aviation altitudes. A unique aspect of the Space Radiation and Plasma Effects focus area is that it bridges the space environments, engineering, and user communities. The intent of the paper is to provide an overview of the current status and to suggest a guide for how to best validate space environment models for operational/engineering use, which includes selection of essential space environment and effect quantities and appropriate metrics.

    

   more » « less
4. Probing Extreme Environments with Very-High-Energy Gamma Rays

   Williams, David A. ; Alves, Rafael Batista ; Bird, Ralph ; Biteau, Jonathan ; Bulgarelli, Andrea ; Cerruti, Matteo ; Coppi, Paolo ; D'Ammando, Filippo ; De Cesare, Giovanni ; Dwarkadas, Vikram V. ; et al ( May 2019 , Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society)

   Very-high-energy gamma rays (traditionally above ∼100 GeV) are the most energetic cosmic electromagnetic radiation observed and trace the presence of charged particles of even higher energy. These gamma rays can provide unique views of the strong magnetic fields around neutron stars and the strong gravitational fields around neutron stars and black holes. At the other extreme of density, they can probe the environment of cosmic voids. This white paper briefly summarizes what can be learned over the coming decade about extreme astrophysical environments through ground-based gamma-ray observations over the 20 GeV to 300 TeV range. The majority of the material is drawn directly from Science with the Cherenkov Telescope Array, which describes the overall science case for CTA. We request that authors wishing to cite results contained in this white paper cite the original work. 

   more » « less
5. Acceleration and Spectral Redistribution of Cosmic Rays in Radio-jet Shear Flows

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acfda9  

   Webb, G. M. ; Xu, Y. ; Biermann, P. L. ; Al-Nussirat, S. ; Mostafavi, P. ; Li, G. ; Barghouty, A. F. ; Zank, G. P. ( November 2023 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   A steady-state, semi-analytical model of energetic particle acceleration in radio-jet shear flows due to cosmic-ray viscosity obtained by Webb et al. is generalized to take into account more general cosmic-ray boundary spectra. This involves solving a mixed Dirichlet–Von Neumann boundary value problem at the edge of the jet. The energetic particle distribution functionf₀(r,p) at cylindrical radiusrfrom the jet axis (assumed to lie along thez-axis) is given by convolving the particle momentum spectrum$f_0(\infty ,p\prime )$with the Green’s function$G(r,p;p\prime )$, which describes the monoenergetic spectrum solution in which$f_0\to \delta (p-p\prime )$asr→ ∞ . Previous work by Webb et al. studied only the Green’s function solution for$G(r,p;p\prime )$. In this paper, we explore for the first time, solutions for more general and realistic forms for$f_0(\infty ,p\prime )$. The flow velocityu=u(r)e_zis along the axis of the jet (thez-axis).uis independent ofz, andu(r) is a monotonic decreasing function ofr. The scattering time$\tau {(r,p)={\tau }_0(p/p_0)}^{\alpha }$in the shear flow region 0 <r<r₂, and$\tau {(r,p)={\tau }_0(p/p_0)}^{\alpha }{(r/r_2)}^s$, wheres> 0 in the regionr>r₂is outside the jet. Other original aspects of the analysis are (i) the use of cosmic ray flow lines in (r,p) space to clarify the particle spatial transport and momentum changes and (ii) the determination of the probability distribution${\psi }_p(r,p;p\prime )$that particles observed at (r,p) originated fromr→ ∞ with momentum$p\prime$. The acceleration of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays in active galactic nuclei jet sources is discussed. Leaky box models for electron acceleration are described.

    

   more » « less