Here is the original pdf article. Looks like an interesting project.
I’ve been wanting to make a detector for some time but finding the scintillator was somewhat challenging.
This one should pick up any particle with sufficiently high energy.
A calorimeter could be implemented for charged particles by collimating the particle stream and forcing it to turn in a magnetic field to the detector.
If anyone is interested in doing this. I’ll help where I can (from College Station)
They provide two sources for the plastic scintillator material
http://www.eljentechnology.com/
and
http://www.crystals.saint-gobain.com/Plastic_Scintillation.aspx
I plan on sending them emails to see about availability and pricing for small quantities of the materials.
Does anyone know if this material has any kind of expiration date?
When you do, I’d also like to know the pricing on their ZnS parts as well
Argh! I hate poor reporting and misrepresentation.
The article claims you can build this muon detector for about $100…
Well just the specified photo detector goes for $132 in single quantities. Now you can get them for $50 each if you order them 100 at a time…
What about a ZnS screen? Maybe cannibalized from something? Or a CCD from a cheap webcam or something at the cost of detector area
BTW, Chris. The price I listed above is for the photodetector, not the scintillation material.
Ah. I assumed that it was a complete assembly.
What about something like a GaAs solar cell?
All we need is effectively a giant photodiode
Edit: Actually, Mouser sells photodiodes for not terribly expensive prices
Given that they specified a photo multiplier it is unlikely a typical photodiode would be sensitive enough. The ammount of light typically produced in such detector material can be as little as a single photon.
The EJ200 scintillator specifies 10K photons/MeV
Assuming 1/6 reach the detector and that all are of sufficient energy to be picked up by the detector (not bad assumptions, 500nm=2.5eV), this gives us a lower bound on the charge of 270*10^-18 C/MeV for a regular photodiode
If we assume that we can measure if a 0.1pF capacitor is charged, then that puts an upper bound on minimum energy for detection at ~1GeV.
Avalanche photodiodes are too expensive. I’m not sure how much a photomultiplier tube would cost
Edit: Digikey has reasonably priced avalanche photodiodes with sensitivities in the near IR band
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en/sensors-transducers/optical-sensors-photodiodes/1967048?k=&pkeyword=&pv96=8&FV=fff4001e%2Cfff803c8&mnonly=0&newproducts=0&ColumnSort=1000011&page=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25
Although I haven’t the foggiest what u supernerds are even talking about, I do have something that may be helpful if you are seriously considering going all 1.21 jigawatts and all at dms:
So my first few years as ee, my intro was a extended tour of NI’s hardware groups and architectures for input and generation of all the various forms of instrumentation, mio cards, scopes, dios, rf up converts add downs, etc. I created several ‘front end’ gizmos which were first pass protos for what would get massaged into instruments in cases where feasible.
Laterms in career, had many talks with Princeton physics dept about consulting, but I took a different gig.
Oops… tablet screwy buttons…
Point is: IMO, best spot to initiate numerous occurrences of some contraption is from pc for accounting and calcs. And best place to get your measurements into is of course the Ole pc.
If you are able to build a measurement thingy I can’t pronounce but can show me a voltage I can digitize and a formula I can use to relate, I Can quickly/easily get it into the pc with custom app u can use, maybe get the data into excel or Matlab or whatever u crazies rock with anymore.
And of course stimulus is just the reverse.
So that explanation a bit oversimplified, but if it helps, I’m happy to help u guys get all subatomic…
One of the things that make the original detector so effective, probably, is that its detection area is 6mm square…
@semaphore1999 The offer is much appreciated. For the proposed device the actual sensor chamber will produce a short (~2nS) pulse with a 10mV - 100mV magnitude.
Have you had any more thought on teaching a lab view class?
@wandrson I saw that the circuitry for the standalone style unit is described in one of the docs that you linked. It does not look to be overly difficult, but will take some effort regardless.
Since I am all about the software is the instrument approach as appropriately brainwashed by the LabVIEW clan, I would likely skip fiddling with arduino, and simply create my signal conditioning unit to be easily attached to Virtual Bench. Since VB is wifi ready, we could then use laptop with some custom software to display and control the signal conditioning unit. It would even be possible to create an android or ios interface, although IMO this is busywork.
Plan B, and perhaps the better plan: Pick up a cheap USB multifunction DAQ card. NI has one for $150 and a better one for <$200. But I’d bet we would shop this around and find equivalent USB device for much less from I/O tech or maybe can find Chinese company for extremely cheap. So then, we hook a signal conditioning circuit to the pins of the MIO card, perhaps build a nice ruggedized chassis to contain the entire thing, with one USB on one side, wiring for your sensor(s) on the other. Power is supplied from USB on the NI cards. I’d bet IO tech is the same. Detection/generation software with various modes available from within your user application onscreen.
Yeah, I do think there could be option for some maker style graphical programming workshops. I was working on LabVIEW all night, come to think. LabVIEW classes done NI-style are extremely intense. They run for a full week 8-5 M-F for just Basics as I recall. And it is quite intense due to the paradigm shift to a graphical thought process from a textual based one. This sort of training is available locally through GSystems, and is sponsored via NI. The courses are pricey ($2k), and include certification for the training.
Perhaps there is an option to do little programming workshop at DMS, where students come in and work on a selected programming assignment with assistance for an hour or two. A few workshops might make the interface a lot less formidable. I remember learning from having to program during the classes at NI back in the day. So here is the real question, is there sufficient interest for something like this?
What about a photodiode and a Darlington transistor?
I’ll have some left over scintillation material if you want to experiment. Should arrive this week.
I just need to finalize the g-code and should be using the HAAS to cut the chamber soon. I have the bottom block of Mic6 cut to size, and just need to remove a little more from one side of the top block to get it ready for the HAAS. Already have the soft jaws for the Kurt machined to hold the blocks for machining.
And here is a bad cell phone picture of the lower part of the block after a HSM rough pass at milling out the 3 cubic inch pocket from a block of aluminum!
Well finished off the lower part of the sensor chamber last night…
Also found out the silicon photodetector will take a little longer to arrive then I thought. Apparently the company that actually manufactures and sells them is based in Ireland. They just have a US sales presence… Almost makes the $40 shipping fee for a 5 gram item understandable…
this
looks an awful lot like a hard drive case…