Photodiode read-out of the ALICE photon spectrometer PbWO4PbWO_{4} crystals

Proposal of abstract for LEB99, Snowmass, Colorado, 20-24 September 1999The PHOton Spectrometer of the ALICE experiment is an electromagnetic calorimeter of high granularity consisting of 17280 lead-tungstate (PWO) crystals of dimensions 22x22x180 mm3, read out by large-area PIN-diodes with very low-noise front-end electronics. The crystal assembly is operated at -25C to increase the PWO light yield. A 16.1x17.1 mm2 photodiode, optimized for the PWO emissio spectrum at 400-500 nm, has been developed. The 20x20 mm2 preamplifier PCB is attached to the back side of the diode ceramic frame. The charge sensitive preamplifier is built in discrete logic with two input JFETs for optimum matching with the ~150pF PIN-diode. A prototype shaper has been designed and built in discrete logic. For a detector matrix of 64 units the measured ENCs are between 450-550e at -25C. Beam tests demonstrate that the required energy resolution is reached.Summary:The PHOton Spectrometer of the ALICE experiment is an electromagnetic calorimeter of high granularity consisting of 17280 lead-tungstate (PWO) crystals of dimensions 22x22x180 mm3, coupled to large-area PIN-diodes with matching low-noise preamplifiers. PHOS is optimized for measuring photons, pi0s and eta mesons in the momentum ranges 0.5-10, 1-10 and 2-10 GeV/c, respectively, and is designed for the expected large number of particles that will be produced in central Pb-Pb collisions. Lead tungstate (PWO) is a fast scintillating crystal with a rather complex emission spectrum, consisting of two components: a blue component peaking at 420 nm and a green component peaking at 480-520 nm. The light yield of PWO at room temperature is low compared with other heavy scintillating crystals, for instance BGO. However, the yield depends strongly on the temperature with a coefficient of ~-2 degree. At the selected operating temperature of -25C the yield is about a factor of 3 higher compared to room temperature. Still, in order to reach the required energy resolution for a PHOS channel, an ENC noise of less than 600e for the PIN-diode-preamplifier-shaper stage is required. This is a very low value taking into account the high capacitance of 150-200 pF of the large area PIN-diodes. In collaboration with the PHOS project, the company AME (Horten, Norway) has designed and produced a PIN-photodiode optimized for the cross-section and spectral responsivity of the PHOS PWO crystal. The photodiode has an active area of 17.1x16.1 mm2 and is fabricated on n-type silicon material of thickness 280 um. The wafer specific resistivity is between 3000 and 6000 ohm-cm, which corresponds to a depletion voltage of 70V. The photodiode response is optimized for the spectral region 400-500 nm in order to match the PWO emission spectrum. The PIN-diode is mounted on a ceramic substrate 0.65 mm thick. On this substrate the diode is surrounded by a ceramic frame. The preamplifier PCB of dimension 20x20 mm2 is attached to the back side of the frame. The PIN-diode and bondings to ground and preamplifier input are protected by an optically transparent epoxy layer. The front side of the PIN-diode is glued onto the endface of the PWO crystal with optically transparent glue (Melt-Mount Quick-Stick, Cargille Laboratories, USA). Each crystal is wrapped in White Tyvek to ensure maximum light collection efficiency and optical insulation between the crystals. The PHOS detector consists of four independent modules, each with 4320 channels. The crystal assembly with the photo detectors are operated at -25 +/- 0.3C. The power dissipation per module is ~1 kW. The charge sensitive preamplifier is an operational amplifier built in discrete logic and with two input JFETs (BF861A). Using two JFETs in parallel gives the lowest noise for detector capacitance >100 pF. A prototype shaper, comprising three amplification stages, has been designed and built in discrete logic. For a PIN-diode with capacitance ~150 pF and a leakage current <1 nA under cooling, calculations give optimum time differentiation and integration constants around 3 microsec. For a detector matrix of 64 units the measured ENCs are between 450-550 e at -25C. Beam tests of this matrix show that the required energy resolution for the PHOS is reached

Interferometry of Direct Photons in Central 280Pb+208Pb Collisions at 158A GeV

Two-particle correlations of direct photons were measured in central 208Pb+208Pb collisions at 158 AGeV. The invariant interferometric radii were extracted for 100<K_T<300 MeV/c and compared to radii extracted from charged pion correlations. The yield of soft direct photons, K_T<300 MeV/c, was extracted from the correlation strength and compared to theoretical calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Event-by-Event Fluctuations in Particle Multiplicities and Transverse Energy Produced in 158.A GeV Pb+Pb collisions

Event-by-event fluctuations in the multiplicities of charged particles and photons, and the total transverse energy in 158$\cdot A$ GeV Pb+Pb collisions are studied for a wide range of centralities. For narrow centrality bins the multiplicity and transverse energy distributions are found to be near perfect Gaussians. The effect of detector acceptance on the multiplicity fluctuations has been studied and demonstrated to follow statistical considerations. The centrality dependence of the charged particle multiplicity fluctuations in the measured data has been found to agree reasonably well with those obtained from a participant model. However for photons the multiplicity fluctuations has been found to be lower compared to those obtained from a participant model. The multiplicity and transverse energy fluctuations have also been compared to those obtained from the VENUS event generator.Comment: To appear in Physical Review C; changes : more detailed discussion on errors and few figures modifie

Scaling of Particle and Transverse Energy Production in 208Pb+208Pb collisions at 158 A GeV

Transverse energy, charged particle pseudorapidity distributions and photon transverse momentum spectra have been studied as a function of the number of participants (N_{part}) and the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions (N_{coll}) in 158 A GeV Pb+Pb collisions over a wide impact parameter range. A scaling of the transverse energy pseudorapidity density at midrapidity as N_{part}^{1.08 \pm 0.06} and N_{coll}^{0.83 \pm 0.05} is observed. For the charged particle pseudorapidity density at midrapidity we find a scaling as N_{part}^{1.07 \pm 0.04} and N_{coll}^{0.82 \pm 0.03}. This faster than linear scaling with N_{part} indicates a violation of the naive Wounded Nucleon Model.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures, submitted to European Physical Journal C (revised results for scaling exponents

Systematics of Inclusive Photon Production in 158 AGeV Pb Induced Reactions on Ni, Nb, and Pb Targets

The multiplicity of inclusive photons has been measured on an event-by-event basis for 158 AGeV Pb induced reactions on Ni, Nb, and Pb targets. The systematics of the pseudorapidity densities at midrapidity (rho_max) and the width of the pseudorapidity distributions have been studied for varying centralities for these collisions. A power law fit to the photon yield as a function of the number of participating nucleons gives a value of 1.13+-0.03 for the exponent. The mean transverse momentum, , of photons determined from the ratio of the measured electromagnetic transverse energy and photon multiplicity, remains almost constant with increasing rho_max. Results are compared with model predictions.Comment: 16 pages including 4 figure

Net Charge Fluctuations in Au + Au Interactions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV

Data from Au + Au interactions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV, obtained with the PHENIX detector at RHIC, are used to investigate local net charge fluctuations among particles produced near mid-rapidity. According to recent suggestions, such fluctuations may carry information from the Quark Gluon Plasma. This analysis shows that the fluctuations are dominated by a stochastic distribution of particles, but are also sensitive to other effects, like global charge conservation and resonance decays.Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX 3, 3 figures, 307 authors, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. on 21 March, 2002. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (will be made) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/phenix/WWW/run/phenix/papers.htm

Event-by-event fluctuations in Mean pTp_T and Mean eTe_T in sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV Au+Au Collisions

Distributions of event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum and mean transverse energy near mid-rapidity have been measured in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV at RHIC. By comparing the distributions to what is expected for statistically independent particle emission, the magnitude of non-statistical fluctuations in mean transverse momentum is determined to be consistent with zero. Also, no significant non-random fluctuations in mean transverse energy are observed. By constructing a fluctuation model with two event classes that preserve the mean and variance of the semi-inclusive p_T or e_T spectra, we exclude a region of fluctuations in sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV Au+Au collisions.Comment: 10 pages, RevTeX 3, 7 figures, 4 tables, 307 authors, submitted to Phys. Rev. C on 22 March 2002. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (will be made) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/phenix/WWW/run/phenix/papers.htm

Flow Measurements via Two-particle Azimuthal Correlations in Au + Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV

Two particle azimuthal correlation functions are presented for charged hadrons produced in Au + Au collisions at RHIC sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV. The measurements permit determination of elliptic flow without event-by-event estimation of the reaction plane. The extracted elliptic flow values v_2 show significant sensitivity to both the collision centrality and the transverse momenta of emitted hadrons, suggesting rapid thermalization and relatively strong velocity fields. When scaled by the eccentricity of the collision zone, epsilon, the scaled elliptic flow shows little or no dependence on centrality for charged hadrons with relatively low p_T. A breakdown of this epsilon scaling is observed for charged hadrons with p_T > 1.0 GeV/c for the most central collisions.Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX 3, 4 figures, 307 authors, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. on 11 April 2002. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (will be made) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/phenix/WWW/run/phenix/papers.htm