Patent
Elementary particle detector
| العنوان: | Elementary particle detector |
|---|---|
| Patent Number: | 11823,881 |
| تاريخ النشر: | November 21, 2023 |
| Appl. No: | 17/423723 |
| Application Filed: | January 16, 2020 |
| مستخلص: | An elementary particle detector including first sensors able to measure an amount of electric charge on electrodes of a readout plate and a processing unit able to determine the location of an avalanche of secondary electrons from the amount of electric charge measured by the first sensors and from the known location of the electrodes. The detector also includes at least one second sensor, each second sensor being able to measure an electrical signal produced by the secondary electrons when they pass through a conductive gate. The processing unit is additionally able to establish an arrival time of the elementary particle from a time at which the electrical signal is measured by the second sensor. |
| Inventors: | UNIVERSITÉ CLAUDE BERNARD LYON 1 (Villeurbanne, FR); CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE (Paris, FR) |
| Assignees: | UNIVERSITE CLAUDE BERNARD LYON 1 (Villeurbanne, FR), CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE (Paris, FR) |
| Claim: | 1. An elementary particle detector, said detector comprising: a cathode and a conducting grid able to create a potential difference able to accelerate electrons in the direction of the conducting grid, the conducting grid being able to be traversed by the accelerated electrons; a dynode interposed between the cathode and the conducting grid, said dynode being able, for each elementary particle, to produce an avalanche of secondary electrons, said dynode comprising for said purpose several channels, each channel comprising an emissive material, said emissive material being capable, in response to an impact of an electron, of generating, on average, more than one secondary electron; a reader plate arranged on the side of the conducting grid opposite to the dynode, said reader plate comprising: an external face arranged in such a manner as to be impacted by the avalanche of secondary electrons; and electrodes arranged next to one another in a face parallel to or coincident with the external face; first sensors able to measure the quantity of electrical charges on the electrodes; a processing unit capable of determining the location of the avalanche of electrons based on the quantity of electrical charges measured by the first sensors and on the known location of the electrodes; the detector includes at least one second sensor, each said second sensor being able to measure an electrical signal produced by the secondary electrons when they pass through the conducting grid; and the processing unit is capable, in addition, of establishing a time of arrival of the elementary particle based on a time referred to as “crossing time” where the electrical signal is measured by said at least one second sensor. |
| Claim: | 2. The detector according to claim 1 , in which the processing unit is configured for: correcting the crossing time by subtracting from it a time for propagation of the electrical signal between the location where the conducting grid is traversed by the avalanche of secondary electrons and the location where the electrical signal is measured by said at least one second sensor, the location where the conducting grid is traversed by the avalanche of secondary electrons being established based on the measurements from the first sensors, then determining the time of arrival based on the corrected crossing time thus obtained. |
| Claim: | 3. The detector according to claim 2 , in which the detector comprises several said second sensors situated at respective locations, spaced out from one another, and the processing unit is configured for determining the time of arrival using the corrected crossing times obtained based on the measurements from each of said second sensors. |
| Claim: | 4. The detector according to claim 1 , in which the detector comprises: several conducting grids arranged so as to be contiguous with one another in the same plane in order to cover the whole surface area able to be traversed by the avalanche of secondary electrons, said conducting grids being electrically isolated from one another, and said at least one second sensor associated with each of said conducting grids for measuring the electrical signal only in said conducting grid. |
| Claim: | 5. The detector according to claim 1 , in which the reader plate comprises, in the order starting from its external face: a dielectric layer having a front face turned toward the external face; and conducting strips forming the electrodes of the reader plate, said conducting strips extending mainly parallel to the front face in at least two different directions, each conducting strip being electrically connected to at least a first electrical charge sensor of said first sensors, said conducting strips being formed by: conducting tiles all identical to one another and all situated at the same distance from the external face, said conducting tiles being distributed over the front face of the dielectric layer and being mechanically separated from one another by a dielectric material, and electrical connections, situated under the dielectric layer, which electrically connect conducting tiles in series in such a manner as to form said conducting strips, said electrical connections being arranged in such a manner that each conducting tile belongs to a single conducting strip and each side of a tile is adjacent to the side of another tile belonging to another conducting strip. |
| Claim: | 6. The detector according to claim 5 , in which a largest dimension of each tile is less than or equal to a largest dimension of a transverse cross section of the exit of each channel directly facing the reader plate, the largest dimension of the transverse cross section of the exit of a channel and the largest dimension of a tile being equal to a length of a largest side of a rectangle with a smallest surface area which respectively entirely contains said transverse cross section and said tile. |
| Claim: | 7. The detector according to claim 5 , in which: at least one conducting strip extends from a first end to a second end; and the reader plate comprises at least one via which extends perpendicularly to its external face from a point situated between the ends of the conducting strip up to a point of electrical connection to a first sensor. |
| Claim: | 8. The detector according to claim 5 , in which the detector comprises at least one upper dynode stacked onto a lower dynode, the lower dynode being arranged with respect to the upper dynode in such a manner that the secondary electrons coming out of a channel of the upper dynode are distributed into several channels of the lower dynode. |
| Claim: | 9. The detector according to claim 8 , in which the diameter of the transverse cross section of the entries to the channels of the lower dynode is equal to or less than the diameter of the transverse cross section of the exits from the channels of the upper dynode. |
| Claim: | 10. A method for detecting an elementary particle by means of a detector according to claim 1 , in which the method comprises: the measurement of the quantity of electrical charges received by each electrode of the reader plate by means of the first sensor; the determination of the location of the avalanche of secondary electrons based on the quantity of electrical charges measured by the first sensors and based on the known location of the electrodes; the measurement of an electrical signal produced by the secondary electrons when they pass through the conducting grid by means of said at least one second sensor; and the establishment of a time of arrival of the elementary particle based on a time referred to as “crossing time” when the electrical signal is measured by the second sensor. |
| Claim: | 11. An information recording medium, readable by an electronic computer, said information recording medium comprises instructions for the execution of a method according to claim 10 , when said instructions are executed by the electronic computer. |
| Patent References Cited: | 6384519 May 2002 Beetz et al. 11011358 May 2021 Masuko 20030111597 June 2003 Gonin et al. 20160111267 April 2016 Kholomeev et al. 3062926 August 2018 |
| Other References: | International Search Report and Written Opinion received for PCT/FR2020/050058, dated Jun. 2, 2020. cited by applicant French Search Report received for FR1900458, dated Nov. 7, 2019. cited by applicant |
| Primary Examiner: | Guharay, Karabi |
| Attorney, Agent or Firm: | Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd. |
| رقم الانضمام: | edspgr.11823881 |
| قاعدة البيانات: | USPTO Patent Grants |
| الوصف غير متاح. |