Neutron Irradiation Tests of Calibrated Cryogenic Sensors at Low Temperatures

This paper presents the advancement of a program being carried out in view of selecting the cryogenic temperature sensors to be used in the LHC accelerator. About 10,000 sensors will be installed around the 26.6 km LHC ring, and most of them will be exposed to high radiation doses during the accelerator lifetime. The following thermometric sensors : carbon resistors, thin films, and platinum resistors, have been exposed to high neutron fluences (>10$^15$ n/cm$^2$) at the ISN (Grenoble, France) Cryogenic Irradiation Test Facility. A cryostat is placed in a shielded irradiation vault where a 20 MeV deuteron beam hits a Be target, resulting in a well collimated and intense neutron beam. The cryostat, the on-line acquisition system, the temperature references and the main characteristics of the irradiation facility are described. The main interest of this set-up is its ability to monitor online the evolution of the sensors by comparing its readout with temperature references that are in principle insensitive to the neutron radiation (i.e. Argon gas bulbs when working at about 84 K, and below 4.5 K, either helium gas bulbs or the saturation pressure of the superfluid helium bath). The resistance shifts of the different sensors at liquid helium temperatures are presented

Neutron Irradiation Tests in Superfluid Helium of LHC Cryogenic Thermometers

For control and monitoring purposes, about 10,000 individually calibrated cryogenic temperature sensors will be installed along the 26.7 km LHC. In order to reduce maintenance constraints these sensor s should be as immune as possible to the high neutron fluence environment. For selecting the sensor to be used, a radiation hardness evaluation program at cryogenic conditions is being performed in an irradiation vault of the ISN SARA Cyclotron (Grenoble, France). The set-up is capable of simulating the whole life of a LHC thermometer: same total neutron dose (1015 n.cm-2), irradiation at low tempe rature (1.8 K) and thermal cycles. Bath temperature and sensor resistance are monitored on-line. This paper presents the latest results of this program

Calibration of Cryogenic Thermometers for the LHC

6000 cryogenic temperature sensors of resistive type covering the range from room temperature down to 1.6 K are installed on the LHC machine. In order to meet the stringent requirements on temperature control of the superconducting magnets, each single sensor needs to be calibrated individually. In the framework of a special contribution, IPN (Institut de Physique Nucléaire) in Orsay, France built and operated a calibration facility with a throughput of 80 thermometers per week. After reception from the manufacturer, the thermometer is first assembled onto a support specific to the measurement environment, and then thermally cycled ten times and calibrated at least once from 1.6 to 300 K. The procedure for each of these interventions includes various measurements and the acquired data is recorded in an ORACLE®-database. Furthermore random calibrations on some samples are executed at CERN to crosscheck the coherence between the approximation data obtained by both IPN and CERN. In the range of 1.5 K to 30 K, the calibration apparatuses at IPN and CERN are traceable to standards maintained in a national metrological laboratory by using a set of rhodium-iron temperature sensors of metrological quality. This paper presents the calibration procedure, the quality assurance applied, the results of the calibration campaigns and the return of experience

Neutron Irradiation Tests of Pressure Transducers in Liquid Helium

The superconducting magnets of the future Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will operate in pressurised superfluid helium (1 bar, 1.9 K). About 500 pressure transducers will be placed in the liquid helium bath for monitoring the filling and the pressure transients after resistive transitions. Their precision must remain better than 100 mbar at pressures below 2 bar and better than 5% for higher pressures (up to 20 bar), with temperatures ranging from 1.8 K to 300 K. All the tested transducers are based on the same principle: the fluid or gas is separated from a sealed reference vacuum by an elastic membrane; its deformation indicates the pressure. The transducers will be exposed to high neutron fluence (2 kGy, 1014 n/cm2 per year) during the 20 years of machine operation. This irradiation may induce changes both on the membranes characteristics (leakage, modification of elasticity) and on gauges which measure their deformations. To investigate these effects and select the transducer to be used in the LHC, a neutron irradiation program is being performed at the CERI cyclotron (CNRS Orléans, France): a cryostat is installed on a beam line, transducers are immersed in liquid helium and irradiated by neutrons (1-20 MeV, 1015 n/cm2). The tested transducers measure the helium bath pressure, the true value of which is given by a warm, unirradiated sensor. Every readout is acquired on-line. This paper presents the results of the first experiments performed during spring, 1999

Thermal architecture for the QUBIC cryogenic receiver

QUBIC, the QU Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology, is a novel forthcoming instrument to measure the B-mode polarization anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The detection of the B-mode signal will be extremely challenging; QUBIC has been designed to address this with a novel approach, namely bolometric interferometry. The receiver cryostat is exceptionally large and cools complex optical and detector stages to 40 K, 4 K, 1 K and 350 mK using two pulse tube coolers, a novel 4He sorption cooler and a double-stage 3He/4He sorption cooler. We discuss the thermal and mechanical design of the cryostat, modelling and thermal analysis, and laboratory cryogenic testing.Fil: May, A. J.. University of Manchester; Reino UnidoFil: Chapron, C.. Astroparticule et Cosmologie; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Coppi, G.. University of Manchester; Reino UnidoFil: D’Alessandro, G.. Università di Roma; ItaliaFil: de Bernardis, P.. Università di Roma; ItaliaFil: Masi, S.. Università di Roma; ItaliaFil: Melhuish, S.. University of Manchester; Reino UnidoFil: Piat, M.. Astroparticule et Cosmologie; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Piccirillo, L.. University of Manchester; Reino UnidoFil: Schillaci, A.. Università di Roma; ItaliaFil: Thermeau, J. P.. Astroparticule et Cosmologie; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Bonaparte, J.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; ArgentinaFil: Di Donato, Andrés Leonardo. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; ArgentinaFil: Fasciszewski Zeballos, Alejandro Miguel. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; ArgentinaFil: Gamboa Lerena, Martín Miguel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Garcia, Beatriz Elena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas; ArgentinaFil: Etchegoyen, Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas; ArgentinaFil: Gomez Berisso, Mariano. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: González, M.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; ArgentinaFil: Harari, Diego Dario. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Kristukat, C.. Universidad Nacional de San Martín; ArgentinaFil: Medina, Maria Clementina. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; ArgentinaFil: Ringegni, P.. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Uidet Grupo de Ensayos Mecanicos Aplicados.; ArgentinaFil: Romero, Gustavo Esteban. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; ArgentinaFil: Suarez, C.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Tecnología en Detección y Astropartículas; ArgentinaFil: Mundo, Luis Mariano. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Uidet Grupo de Ensayos Mecanicos Aplicados.; ArgentinaFil: Watson, B.. University of Manchester; Reino UnidoFil: Wicek, F.. Laboratoire de l’Accélérateur Linéaire; FranciaFil: Zannoni, M.. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Zullo, A.. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare; ItaliaMillimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IXEstados UnidosSociety of Photographic Instrumentation Engineer

Status of QUBIC, the Q&U Bolometer for Cosmology

The Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology (QUBIC) is a novel kind of polarimeter optimized for the measurement of the B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Back-ground (CMB), which is one of the major challenges of observational cosmology. The signal is expected to be of the order of a few tens of nK, prone to instrumental systematic effects and polluted by various astrophysical foregrounds which can only be controlled through multichroic observations. QUBIC is designed to address these observational issues with a novel approach that combines the advantages of interferometry in terms of control of instrumental systematics with those of bolometric detectors in terms of wide-band, background-limited sensitivity.Comment: Contribution to the 2022 Cosmology session of the 33rd Rencontres de Blois. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2203.0894