Experimental HEP Seminar

Developing a water Cherenkov Optical TPC for neutrino detection

Eric Oberla

University of Chicago

The LAPPD collaboration was formed to develop large-area photodetectors based on micro-channel plates for precise time-of-flight measurements in large-scale detectors for high energy physics. With the goal of fielding these 400 cm² photosensors with an integrated readout system, we've designed a custom 10 Gigasample-per-second waveform digitizing ASIC in 0.13 micron CMOS. The prospect of large-area, scalable, and high-granularity photodetectors opens the possibility of building an water-based optical time-projection chamber (OTPC). In this new type of detector, 3D trajectories of high energy charged particles above the Cherenkov threshold can be reconstructed using the detected timing and position of the emitted photons. A small scale water Cherenkov OTPC demonstration is currently installed as a test experiment on the MC7 beam line at Fermilab.