Diastereoisomerism, Stability, and Morphology of Substituted meso-4-Sulfonatophenylporphyrin J-Aggregates

The comparison between nanoparticle morphologies of the J-aggregates of different meso-4-sulfonatophenylporphyrins showing non-sulfonato groups at some of the meso-positions constitutes an ultimate proof of the 2D crystal-like character of the basic self-assembly motif of this family of J-aggregates. Diastereoisomerism stemming from the tacticity of the relative configurations in relation to the J-aggregate bidimensional sheet is the key factor that determines both the striking monolayer in solution and also the hierarchical pathways leading to different nanoparticle morphologies upon further growth. The unexpected stability of such large monolayered sheets made up of porphyrin units is probably caused by the support originated at both surface faces by the double layer potentials of the peripheral ionic substituents. These double layer potentials play a driving role in the subsequent 3D growth of the monolayers, as deduced herein from the determining role of tacticity both in the stability of the J-aggregate sheet and in its evolution either to monolayered or to bilayered nanoparticles. The stabilizing role of the forces at the electrical double layer of the particle suggests a relationship between these forces and the previously reported detection of racemic biases when shear hydrodynamic forces are in action during the aggregation process

SENSE: A comparison of photon detection efficiency and optical crosstalk of various SiPM devices

This paper describes a comparison of photon detection efficiency and optical crosstalk measurements performed by three partners: Geneva University, Catania Observatory and Nagoya University. The measurements were compared for three different SiPM devices with different active areas: from 9 $mm^2$ up to 93.6 $mm^2$ produced by Hamamatsu. The objective of this work is to establish the measurements and analysis procedures for calculating the main SiPM parameters and their precision. This work was done in the scope of SENSE project which aims to build roadmap for the last developments in field of sensors for low light level detection

Performance of a small size telescope (SST-1M) camera for gamma-ray astronomy with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The foreseen implementations of the Small Size Telescopes (SST) in CTA will provide unique insights into the highest energy gamma rays offering fundamental means to discover and under- stand the sources populating the Galaxy and our local neighborhood. Aiming at such a goal, the SST-1M is one of the three different implementations that are being prototyped and tested for CTA. SST-1M is a Davies-Cotton single mirror telescope equipped with a unique camera technology based on SiPMs with demonstrated advantages over classical photomultipliers in terms of duty-cycle. In this contribution, we describe the telescope components, the camera, and the trigger and readout system. The results of the commissioning of the camera using a dedicated test setup are then presented. The performances of the camera first prototype in terms of expected trigger rates and trigger efficiencies for different night-sky background conditions are presented, and the camera response is compared to end-to-end simulations.Comment: All CTA contributions at arXiv:1709.0348

Development of a strategy for calibrating the novel SiPM camera of the SST-1M telescope proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

CTA will comprise a sub-array of up to 70 small size telescopes (SSTs) at the southern array. The SST-1M project, a 4 m-diameter Davies Cotton telescope with 9 degrees FoV and a 1296 pixels SiPM camera, is designed to meet the requirements of the next generation ground based gamma-ray observatory CTA in the energy range above 3 TeV. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) cameras of gamma-ray telescopes can achieve good performance even during high night sky background conditions. Defining a fully automated calibration strategy of SiPM cameras is of great importance for large scale production validation and online calibration. The SST-1M sub-consortium developed a software compatible with CTA pipeline software (CTApipe). The calibration of the SST-1M camera is based on the Camera Test Setup (CTS), a set of LED boards mounted in front of the camera. The CTS LEDs are operated in pulsed or continuous mode to emulate signal and night sky background respectively. Continuous and pulsed light data analysis allows us to extract single pixel calibration parameters to be used during CTA operation.Comment: All CTA contributions at arXiv:1709.0348

Control Software for the SST-1M Small-Size Telescope prototype for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The SST-1M is a 4-m Davies--Cotton atmospheric Cherenkov telescope optimized to provide gamma-ray sensitivity above a few TeV. The SST-1M is proposed as part of the Small-Size Telescope array for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the first prototype has already been deployed. The SST-1M control software of all subsystems (active mirror control, drive system, safety system, photo-detection plane, DigiCam, CCD cameras) and the whole telescope itself (master controller) uses the standard software design proposed for all CTA telescopes based on the ALMA Common Software (ACS) developed to control the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). Each subsystem is represented by a separate ACS component, which handles the communication to and the operation of the subsystem. Interfacing with the actual hardware is performed via the OPC UA communication protocol, supported either natively by dedicated industrial standard servers (PLCs) or separate service applications developed to wrap lower level protocols (e.g. CAN bus, camera slow control) into OPC UA. Early operations of the telescope without the camera were already carried out. The camera is fully assembled and is capable to perform data acquisition using artificial light source.Comment: In Proceedings of the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2017), Busan, Korea. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1709.0348

Multifunctional Copper(I) Coordination Polymers with Aromatic Mono- and Ditopic Thioamides

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Inorganic Chemistry 58.5 (2019): 3290-3301, © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.8b03364Direct reactions under ambient conditions between CuX (X = Br, I) and thiobenzamide (TBA) were carried out at different ratios, giving rise to the formation of a series of one-dimensional (1D) coordination polymers, (CPs) [CuI(TBA)] n (1), [Cu 3 I 3 (TBA) 2 ] n (4), and [CuBr(TBA)] n (5), as well as two molecular complexes, [CuI(TBA) 3 ] (2) and [Cu 2 I 2 (TBA) 4 ]·2MeCN (3). Recrystallization of 1 and 5 yielded a series of isostructural 1D CP solvated species, [CuI(TBA)·S] n ] n (1·S; S = tetrahydrofuran, acetone, methanol) and [CuBr(TBA)·S] n (5·S; S = tetrahydrofuran, acetone), respectively. Similar reactions between CuI and 1,4-dithiobenzamide (DTBA) allowed the isolation of a series of two-dimensional (2D) CPs [CuI(DTBA)·S] n (6·S; S = N,N-dimethylformamide, acetonitrile, methanol). Interestingly, 1·S and 5·S showed variable luminescence and electrical semiconductivity depending on the different solvents located in their structures. Thus, 1 and 5 could display potential application for sensing volatile organic vapors by virtue of the significant changes in their emission upon solvent exposure, even by the naked eye. Theoretical calculations have been used to rationalize these electronic propertiesMINECO (Grants MAT2016-77608-C3-1-P, MAT2016-75883-C2-1-P, and MAT2017-5089-C2-1-R; Ramon y Cajal, Grant RYC-2015-17730), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (Grant CTQ2016-75816-C2-1-P), and European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant 785219; Graphene Flagship−core2

Software design for the control system for Small-Size Telescopes with single-mirror of the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Small-Size Telescope with single-mirror (SST-1M) is a 4 m Davies-Cotton telescope and is among the proposed telescope designs for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). It is conceived to provide the high-energy ($>$ few TeV) coverage. The SST-1M contains proven technology for the telescope structure and innovative electronics and photosensors for the camera. Its design is meant to be simple, low-budget and easy-to-build industrially. Each device subsystem of an SST-1M telescope is made visible to CTA through a dedicated industrial standard server. The software is being developed in collaboration with the CTA Medium-Size Telescopes to ensure compatibility and uniformity of the array control. Early operations of the SST-1M prototype will be performed with a subset of the CTA central array control system based on the Alma Common Software (ACS). The triggered event data are time stamped, formatted and finally transmitted to the CTA data acquisition. The software system developed to control the devices of an SST-1M telescope is described, as well as the interface between the telescope abstraction to the CTA central control and the data acquisition system.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589