INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

ROORKEE

Assembly and Characterization of Resistive

Plate Chambers

May 2016 to July 2016

Authors: Supervisor:
Indroneil Kanungo Dr. Lalit Mohan Pant
Vishal Singh Scientific Officer,
Gargi Kekre Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
Contents
Acknowledgement iii

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Large Hadron Collider (LHC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Muons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.6 Muon Tomography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Theoretical Background 6
2.1 Interaction of charged radiation with matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Interaction of photons with matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2.1 Photoelectric Effect : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2.2 Compton Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.3 Pair Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 Other Electromagnetic Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3.1 Electromagnetic Shower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3.2 Cherenkov Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3.3 Scintillation Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 Gaseous Radiation Detectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4.1 Ionization Chambers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4.2 Proportional Counters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4.3 Geiger Müller Counters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3 Scintillators 13
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2 Types of Scintillators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.1 Organic Scintillators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.2 Inorganic Scintillators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.3 Processing signals from scintillator detectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.4 Radiation Spectra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.4.1 Compton Continuum : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.4.2 Escape Peaks : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.4.3 Effect of Surroundings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.5 Spectrum from Plastic Scintillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.5.1 Cobalt - 60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.6 Spectrum from BGO Scintillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.6.1 Barium - 133 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.6.2 Caesium - 137 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.6.3 Cobalt - 57 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.6.4 Cobalt - 60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.6.5 Sodium - 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.7 Energy Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.8 Neutron detection using liquid scintillator detectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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4 Resistive Plate Chambers 29
4.1 Basic Overlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2 The Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2.1 Bakelite Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2.2 Glass Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.3 The Gases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.3.1 Freon (C2 H2 F4 ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.3.2 Isobutane (C4 H10 ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.3.3 Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6 ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.4 Readout Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.4.1 Coaxial Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.2 Frontend Boards (FEBs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.3 Twisted-Pair Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.5 Operating Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5.1 Avalanche mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5.2 Streamer mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.6 Data Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5 Pre-Assembly Testing 34
5.1 Leak Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.2 Spacer Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

6 Characterization of RPCs 36
6.1 High Voltage Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.2 IV Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.3 Long Term Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.4 Efficiency Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.5 Strip Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

7 Muon Track Analysis 43

7.1 Generating the tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.2 Track Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.3 Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.3.1 Point of Closest Approach (POCA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.3.2 Expectation Maximization (EM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Summary 46

Appendix I : Connection Details 47

Appendix II : Gas Calibration 48

Bibliography 50

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 Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Dr. Lalit Mohan Pant for giving us the oppurtunity to work with him
in the RPC Lab of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and guiding us through the project. We are
also grateful to Mrs. S. Sehgal, Mr. V. K. S. Kashyap and Dr. P. K. Netrakanti from NPD-BARC
for helping us around the RPC lab.

We would also like to thank Mr. R. Sehgal for introducing us to the software he wrote for
Muon Tomography and letting us contribute to the Muon Track Validation Program.

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1 Introduction
High energy physics is the branch of physics that deals with understanding the particles that
constitute matter. It started with the discovery of electrons and the quest has been going on for a
century now with scientists probing up to fermi level distances. As new particles are discovered,
techniques are developed to use these particles in practical applications.

Radiations are widely used in various fields such as medicine, non-destructive testing, diag-
nostics, etc. X-rays and PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans are commonly used for
obtaining precise images of our bone structure and internal organs. However, to look through
denser materials we need radiations (or particles) that can travel through them without dying
out.

Collider experiments are the heart of discovering new particles as high energy collisions present
the opportunity to look inside composite particles. LHC at CERN is the largest facility for collider
experiments.

1.1 Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider, the
largest, most complex experimental facility ever built, and the largest single machine in the
world. It was built by the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) between 1998
and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries, as
well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. It lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in cir-
cumference, as deep as 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the France-Switzerland border near Geneva,
Switzerland.

Figure 1: The Large Hadron Collider

1.2 Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS)

CMS is one of the four main particle detectors at LHC. A number of detectors are placed in
layers centred at the collision point where the accelerated proton beams interact with a centre
of mass energy of 13 TeV.

The Higgs boson was discovered in this detector (and in ATLAS too). Apart from several other
detectors, about 1000 RPCs were used to detect and calculate the trajectory of muons in the

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applied magnetic field (4T) that were released from the collision. This gave information about
their momenta and eventually contributed to the detection of Higgs boson.

Figure 2: Compact Muon Solenoid Schematic

1.3 Muons
Muons are unstable elementary particles with electric charge -1e, spin − 21 and rest mass 105.7
M eV
c2
(about 207 times that of an electron). They are classified as leptons, which means they
are subatomic particles which are not comprised of quarks. They have a mean lifetime of 2.2
µs which is relatively long compared to other unstable subatomic particles. The only unstable
subatomic particles which live longer than muons are neutrons which have a mean lifetime of
about 15 minutes.

Muons are created in large numbers in hadron collider experiments. They are also created
naturally when hadronic cosmic rays interact with the earth’s atmosphere. In both these cases,
the interaction results in the formation of charged pion which decays into a muon and a muon
neutrino.

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 Figure 3: Trajectory of muons when subjected to magnetic field of 4T in CMS

Muons, from cosmic ray interactions, reach the earth’s surface at the rate of about 1 per cm2 per
min. They are highly penetrating and can reach several meters below sea level. Although they
have a very short lifetime, they can travel from their point of origin in the earth’s atmosphere all
the way down to the surface because of their relativistic speed. Time dilation, from the earth’s
frame of reference, can be used to explain this fact.

Many facilities around the globe involve detection of muons which gives rise to the need for
fast and efficient muon detectors. Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) are the most commonly used
ones.

1.4 Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs)

RPCs are fast detectors designed especially for muons. They are large area detectors with count
rate capability of the order of kHz/cm2 . They are operated in streamer as well as avalanche mode
depending on the requirements of the experiment.

Avalanche mode : The signal propagates through avalanche formation. The pulse am-
plitudes are not very high but the pulse rise time is less than 5 ns which is very fast. Hence, this
mode is suitable where timing is preferred over signal strength.

Streamer Mode : At higher voltages much larger currents are drawn due to gas pho-
toionization. This results in a much stronger signal but higher pulse rise time. Hence, streamer
mode is suitable when signal strength is to be preferred over timing.

More about the theoretical details of the mentioned modes of operations will be discussed in
later sections.

RPCs are highly efficient as well as economic detectors which makes them the optimal choice
for many experiments around the world. Some of them are mentioned below.

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1.5 India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)
It is a huge project coming up in India that will focus on detecting and understanding neutrino
oscillations. It will be located in Bodi West hills near Madurai.

Figure 4: India-based Neutrino Observatory

50 kilo tonnes of magnetized iron will be used with 27,000 RPCs as muon trackers to gain
information about the incoming neutrinos. The neutrinos from the cosmic rays will interact with
iron and will generate pions which would in turn decay into muons. These muons will bend in
the magnetic field produced by the iron mass (about 1T) and their trajectory will be recorded by
the RPCs present in alternating layers inside the iron mass. This would reveal information about
their momenta and the corresponding neutrino interaction.

A huge mass of iron is needed as neutrinos are known to have a very small probability of
interaction. The whole setup will be placed under a hill of granite rock to provide shielding.
Apart from other shielding methods, suitable trigger system and validation of trajectory will be
employed to make sure that the detected muon originated from neutrino interaction with the
iron mass and not from cosmic ray showers.

1.6 Muon Tomography

Muon tomography is a technique that uses cosmic ray muons to generate three-dimensional
images of volumes by using information about the Rutherford Scaterring of muons when they
interact with materials with different atomic numbers.

Muons undergo Rutherford Scattering when they interact with matter. The scattering angle
is directly proportional to the atomic number of the element with which the interaction occurs.
Muon tomography involves using this phenomenon to create a 3-dimensional image of shielded
materials by analyzing the incoming and outgoing muon trajectory.

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 The technique is well developed in some parts of the world and research is going on India too.
Cosmic muons, available free of cost, are to be used to identify the nature of matter present inside
huge containers. This will help control smuggling of high-Z materials across borders which could
be used for various illegal activities including nuclear weaponry.

Figure 5: Muon Tomography

In its most primitive form, the project intends to employ six RPCs, 3 to generate and validate
the trajectory of incoming muon and 3 to analyze its path after scattering. The information from
the scattering angles will be used to create 3-D image of the matter present in between them.

The primary aim of our project is to assemble and characterize RPCs for muon tomography
project and validate and analyze tracks of muons passing through the RPCs.

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2 Theoretical Background
2.1 Interaction of charged radiation with matter
All detectors used in high energy physics involve interaction of the incoming particle with
some medium to generate information carriers which form the signal. Therefore, it is crucial to
understand the interaction of subatomic particles with matter.

Charged particles interact through electromagnetic force. In most of the cases that concern us,
these interactions can be very well explained using Bethe-Bloch formulation. The Bethe formula
describes the mean energy loss per distance travelled of swift charged particles (protons, alpha
particles, atomic ions, but not electrons) traversing matter (or alternatively the stopping power
of the material). It makes the following assumptions :

1. The momentum transferred during collision is infinitesimal.

2. The trajectory of the incident particle is not altered appreciably.
3. The nucleus of the material has a small recoil.

The Bethe Bloch Equation is expressed as :

2γ 2 β 2 me c2 Wmax
 
dE 2 2 Z 1 2 2 C
− = 2πNa re me c ρ z ln( ) − 2β − δ − 2
dx A β2 I2 Z

where,
Z = Atomic Number of the absorbing material.
A = Atomic Mass of the absorbing material.
β = v/c
γ=√1
1−β 2
me = Rest mass of an electron.
re = Classical electron radius.
ρ = Density of the absorbing material.
Na = Avogadro’s number.
I = Mean excitation potential.
δ = Density correction factor.
C = Shell correction factor.
Wmax = Maximum energy transferred in a single collision.

The major inferences that can be drawn from the above equation are.

• Higher the atomic number of the absorbing material, higher is the energy deposited by the
particle.

• Higher the charge on the incident particle, higher is the energy deposited by it.

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 Figure 6: Plot between -dE/dx and βγ for a copper target

Muons are minimum ionizing particles (MIPs). Their βγ lies in the range of 2-4 and as we
can infer from Figure 6, they impart very less energy to the target material. Therefore, special
detectors are needed to tackle this problem.

2.2 Interaction of photons with matter

2.2.1 Photoelectric Effect :
Explained by Einstein in 1905, photoelectric effect is the phenomenon of emission of electrons
from a metal surface on the incidence of light. Photons impart their energy to the free electrons. If
this energy imparted to the electrons is more than their work function (minimum energy required
to break free of the attraction from the ions in the material), the electrons are ejected with kinetic
energy equal to the difference in the energy of incident photon and the work function of the
metal.

E = hν − φ
where,
E = Kinetic Energy of the ejected electron.
h = Planck’s Constant (6.626 ∗ 10−34 Js)
ν = Frequency of the incoming radiation
φ = Work Function of the metal.

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 Figure 7: Photoelectric Effect

This form of interaction dominates the other two when the energy of the incoming radiation
is less than 100-150 keV. Beyond this value, Compton scattering starts to occur.

2.2.2 Compton Scattering

Compton scattering is analogous to elastic classical collisions. Photon strikes the electron and
gets scattered in some different direction with reduced energy (larger wavelength) and the elec-
tron is imparted the remaining energy. The momentum of the system remains conserved. Maxi-
mum energy transfer takes place in the case of backscattering when the photon gets scattered by
an angle of 180o and minimum energy is transferred when the photon just grazes through with
negligible change in its path. This is the dominant effect when the energy of photon is in the
range of a 0.1-0.2 MeV to 2-3 MeV.

Figure 8: Compton Scattering

2.2.3 Pair Production

When a photon with energy higher than 1.022 MeV comes very close to a nucleus it undergoes
pair production, creating an electron-positron pair. The rest mass energy of electron as well
as positron is 0.511 MeV. Hence a photon of energy higher than 1.022 MeV is required for pair
production to take place. The remaining energy appears as the kinetic energy of the two particles.
This is the dominant form of interaction for high energy photons.

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 Figure 9: Pair Production

2.3 Other Electromagnetic Interactions

Apart from the ones mentioned before, there are some other interesting electromagnetic in-
teractions that are frequently observed in experiments.

2.3.1 Electromagnetic Shower

Very high energy cosmic radiation (1020 eV) reach the earths atmosphere at a high rate. They in-
teract with the earth’s atmosphere to give pions which quickly decays into muons, neutrinos and
gamma rays. These high energy gamma rays result in emission of electrons by the aforemen-
tioned ways. These electrons lose energy by emitting bremsstrahlung radiations which them-
selves emit more electrons (and positrons). The process continues until the electrons are unable
to radiate efficiently due to very less energy. Therefore, a shower of electrons and positrons is
created.

Figure 10: Depiction of a Shower Event

2.3.2 Cherenkov Radiation

Cherenkov light is emitted when a charged particle is moving in a dielectric medium with speed
greater than the speed of light in that medium. When a charged particle passes through a di-

9
electric medium, it polarizes the atoms in it. When these atoms are restored in their original
states photons are emitted. When the speed of charged particle is less than the speed of light
in that medium atomic dipoles are symmetric with respect to the particle. Hence, destructive
interference takes place and no light is observed. However, when the speed of particle is greater
than that of light atomic dipoles formed are asymmetric with respect to the particle. This leads
to constructive interference and a faint blue light is observed termed as Cherenkov light.

2.3.3 Scintillation Light

There are certain materials which release photons when a charged particle goes through them
due to excitation and subsequent de-excitation of the electrons in its atoms/molecules. The pho-
tons released are directly proportional to the energy deposited by the charged particle which
makes them a suitable material for obtaining energy spectrum of radioactive elements. The scin-
tillating material is coupled with a photomultiplier tube to make a detector. The energy of neutral
particles like neutrons and gamma rays can also be measured as they release charged particles on
interaction with the atoms/molecules of the scintillator. Some scintillators and spectra obtained
using them have been discussed later in later sections.

2.4 Gaseous Radiation Detectors

Radiation detectors are used to find the energy or the intensity of the incoming radiation. They
have paved the path to high energy physics and laid foundation for the invention of modern
detectors.

In general, a radiation detector involves a cathode and an anode with gas filled in between
them. The incoming radiation ionizes the gas molecules creating ion electron pair which drift in
opposite direction towards their respective electrode. A signal is generated due to the motion of
these charged particles which gives us information about the radiation.

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 Figure 11: A plot between the pulse amplitude and applied voltage.

Briefly described below, are some broad classifications of gas detectors.

2.4.1 Ionization Chambers

These detectors are operated in the ionisation region (as shown in Figure 11). The cathode and
anode are parallel plates. The idea of the detector is to fully stop the particle by collision with
the gas molecules inside the detector. The amplitude of the pulse obtained can be calibrated with
known sources to get the energy of the incident particle.

2.4.2 Proportional Counters

In the proportional region, the pulse amplitude is directly proportional to the energy deposited
by the particle inside the detector. Proportional counters are operated in this region. They are
usually of a cylindrical geometry with a thin anode wire at the axis of a cylindrical cathode. The
electric field inside the detector is inversely proportional to the distance from the anode wire.
Thus, there is a very high electric field in a very small region around the anode wire. When an
electron, from the ionisation caused by the incident particle, reaches this region it gains enough
energy to strike out other electrons from their shells forming an avalanche, hence creating a
huge pulse.

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 Figure 12: Proportional Counter

Multi-Wire Proportional Counters (MWPCs) are one of the most successful proportional coun-
ters. They contained two orthogonal planes of anode wires placed between two cathode plates
to get the x-y coordinates of the incident particle.

RPCs are operated in proportional region but they are not proportional counters.

2.4.3 Geiger Müller Counters

They are not designed to find the energy of the radiation but only to detect the presence or
intensity of the radiation. Hence, they are operated at higher voltages beyond proportional region
where even a weak radiation will generate a measurable pulse.

Figure 13: Geiger Müller Tube

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3 Scintillators
3.1 Introduction
Scintillators are materials that release photons when a charged particle passes through them.
The scintillators are coupled with a photomultiplier tube using a light guide to make a detector.
The photons produced inside the scintillators are guided to the photomultiplier using the light
guide.PMT consists of a photosensitive cathode, a string of dynodes and an anode. Electrons
are released from photo cathode through photoelectric effect producing an electrical signal. This
signal, due to the scattering of the photons in the scintillators and low quantum efficiency of the
photocathode, is extremely weak and hence needs to be amplified. This is achieved by keeping
dynodes in increasing high voltage ladder. Weak signals (electrons) are directed and accelerated
towards the first dynode because of the voltage applied where they transfer some of their en-
ergy to produce secondary electrons. All electrons are then directed towards the second dynode
for further amplification in the same process. Total amplified electrical signal is then collected
through the anode for further processing and analyzing.

Figure 14: Schematic of a Photomultiplier Tube

PMT consists of a photosensitive cathode, a string of dynodes and an anode. Electrons are
released from photo cathode through photoelectric effect producing an electrical signal. This
signal, due to the attenuation of the photons in the scintillators and low quantum efficiency
of the photocathode, is extremely weak and hence needs to be amplified. This is achieved by
keeping dynodes in an increasing sequence of voltages (Figure 14). Electrons emitted by the
photocathode are accelerated towards the dynode chain, which may contain up to 14 elements.
Focusing electrodes are usually present to ensure that photoelectrons emitted near the edges of
the photocathode will be likely to land on the first dynode. Upon impacting the first dynode,
a photoelectron will invoke the release of additional electron that are accelerated towards the
next dynode, and so on. The surface composition and geometry of the dynodes determines their
ability to serve as electron multipliers. Because gain varies with the voltage across the dynodes
and the total number of dynodes, electron gains of the order of 10 million (Figure 15) are possible
if 12-14 dynode stages are employed.

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Figure 15: A plot between the electron gain and the voltage across the photomultiplier tube.

3.2 Types of Scintillators

3.2.1 Organic Scintillators
Organic scintillators are aromatic hydrocarbons that contain multiple benzene rings inter-
linked in various ways. They have very rapid decay time generally of a few nanoseconds. Pho-
tons in organic scintillators are produced due to the excitation and subsequent de-excitation of
the delocalized electrons in the pi molecular orbitals. Further they can be classified into liquid
scintillators and plastic scintillators.

Plastic Scintillator : They are basically polymers. A primary fluorescent emitter (fluor)
is suspended in a solid polymer matrix (base). They have a decay time of 2-4 ns which means they
have extremely good timing resolution. They have fairly high light output and can be shaped into
almost any desired form with a high degree of durability and are relatively cheap compared to
other types of scintillators. Because of these properties we have used them to make paddles for
our triggering system. Figure 16 shows the scinitllator paddles we have used as the top triggering
plane in our hodoscope.

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 Figure 16: Top Triggering Plane

They are covered with opaque black tape to ensure that only high energy particles and
photons generate pulses inside the scintillators and low energy particles and visible light are
absorbed by the tape.

Organic Liquid Scintillator : It is a solution of one or more organic scintillators in

an organic solvent. They can be easily loaded with other additives which widens their utility for
different purposes. For example, addition of 10 B increases the neutron detection efficiency for the
scintillation counter. NE-213 is a liquid scintillator detector widely used for neutron detection.
They are kept in air tight chambers to prevent diffusion of quenchers like oxygen. Apart from
these, liquid scintillators also have another important feature called Pulse Shape Dsicrimination.
It relies on the basic fact that different kinds of particles generate a different pulse when they
pass through the scintillator. On the basis of the ratio of the amounts of charges deposited as a
result of the particle traversal between different time intervals, one can not only determine the
presence of radiation but also the type of radiation.

3.2.2 Inorganic Scintillators

Inorganic scintillators are crystals grown in high temperature furnaces. They are slow detectors
(decay time typically of the order of 100 ns) but have a very good resolution due to which they
are commonly used for obtaining radiation spectra. They are usually hygroscopic and hence,
should be contained in moisture free environment.

3.3 Processing signals from scintillator detectors

The signal from scintillators is fed into the electronics which converts the raw information
into useful data. We extract two signals from the photomultiplier tube, one from the anode and
the other from the last dynode. As expected, we get a negative pulse from the anode and a
positive pulse from the dynode. The dynode pulse is used to analyze the energy deposited by the
interacting particle while the anode pulse is used to set the gate.

15
 Discriminator : It is used to set the threshold value for the signal. All signals with
amplitude less than this threshold value will not be processed. A timing signal is also generated
from the anode pulse which marks the onset of a pulse. Pulse shaping: The signal from the
detector is shaped into a Gaussian form to make it easier for DAQ (Data Acquisition) to find the
amplitude of the peak.

Amplifier : Amplifies the signal.

Gate : A gate is a time window generated using the signal from the discriminator. Infor-
mation from only those signals that lie in this window are processed by DAQ. The gate width is
set according to the shaped dynode pulse. The gate width must be enough to detect the peak; but
if itfis too large, then we will not be able to detect another pulse during that time. This would
result in a drop in the count rate.

Data Acquisition : The data acquisition system consists of many modules. We have
used ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) to convert the analog signals into data which can be
understood by the computer. It assigns the maximum amplitude of the pulse within the time
described by the gate a positive integer. This value is proportional to the amplitude and hence
the energy deposited by the particle in the scintillator. We used a 12-bit ADC, hence, we have
4096 (212 ) channels.

3.4 Radiation Spectra

Radiation spectrum is a plot between the energy of the radiation falling on the detector and the
no. of radiations (in a given time) of that energy. An ideal spectrum should contain sharp peaks
corresponding to the energy of the radiation. However, this is not the case in a real spectrum. Due
to different types of interactions and the limitations of the detector and associated electronics,
we get counts for energies apart from those emitted by the source.

3.4.1 Compton Continuum :

The gamma photons get scattered due to Compton scattering and they may escape from the de-
tector before depositing their total energy in it. The energy transmitted to the electrons generates
the spectrum in this case which is maximum in case of backscattering. A sharp fall can be seen
in the spectrum at the backscattering energy which is termed as Compton edge and the whole
spectrum is called Compton continuum. Refer figure 17.

16
 Figure 17: Compton Edge

3.4.2 Escape Peaks :

In case of electron-positron pair production from gamma rays, it is possible that the photons
released from the annihilation of the positron shoot out of the detector and are not detected.
Thus the energy deposited in the detector becomes E0 -2me c2 which corresponds to a peak in
the spectrum called Double Escape Peak. Similarly, if one of the gamma photons released from
the annihilation leaves the detector while the other one is detected, the energy deposited in the
detector becomes E0 -me c2 . The peak corresponding to this energy is called Single Escape Peak.
Refer Figure 18

Figure 18: Escape Peaks

3.4.3 Effect of Surroundings

The detector comes with a shielding and the interaction of radiation with this shielding also
contributes to the spectrum. X-rays are emitted due to the movement of electrons inside the
shielding material due to the radiation photons. These X-rays are also detected by the detector.
Compton scattering occurs in the shielding too. The backscattered photons may get detected

17
by the detector. This contributes to the backscattered peak which is approximately situated at
0.2 MeV. In case of pair production inside the shielding material, one of the photons emitted on
annihilation is likely to be detected by the detector which gives a peak at 0.511 MeV.

Figure 19: Effect of Surroundings on Detector

3.5 Spectrum from Plastic Scintillator

We have used a bar shaped plastic scintillator with dimensions 60cm x 21cm x 2cm to get the
spectrum of Cobalt-60 source.

Figure 20: Schematic Diagram of a Plastic Scintillator

3.5.1 Cobalt - 60
Cobalt-60 is a radioactive species with a half life of 5.2714 year. 60 Co undergoes beta decay to yield
60 Ni. This nucleus emits two gamma photons of energies 1.173 MeV and 1.332 MeV by nuclear

18
de-excitation. The reaction is given in figure 21.

Figure 21: Nuclear Decay Reaction of 60 Cobalt

As we can see from the spectrum in Figure 22, plastic scintillators have a very poor energy
resolution. No photo peaks can be identified which makes these scintillators an inept choice for
obtaining radiation spectra. However, they are very fast, highly efficient, relatively cheap and
can be moulded into different shapes easily granting them superiority for generating triggers
over other scintillators.

Figure 22: 60 Co Gamma Spectrum in a plastic scintillator

19
3.6 Spectrum from BGO Scintillator
BGO(Bi4 Ge3 O12 ), Bismuth Germanate is an inorganic scintillator which is widely used for ob-
taining radiation spectra due to its good resolution. Because of very high atomic number of Bis-
muth and high density of the crystal (7.13 g/cm3 ), it has a high efficiency. It is non-hygroscopic,
durable, strong and rugged. BGO detectors have high energy resolution in the energy range 5 -
20 MeV. It is also possible to obtain large size BGO crystals. Due to these properties, BGO crystals
are widely used in high-energy physics, spectrometry and radiometry of gamma-radiation and
other particles.

We have analyzed the spectrum of barium-133, caesium-137, cobalt-57, cobalt-60 and sodium-
22 using a BGO Scintillator of hexagonal cylindrical shape having dimensions 3.4cm x 7.6cm x
7cm. The sources were kept at distance of approximately 1m from the detector.

As we will see in the plots, photo peaks corresponding to the more prominent radiations can
be identified with high accuracy. We already know the energy of the radiation emitted by the
given sources. Hence, the channel nos. can calibrated to get a graph between counts and actual
energy of radiation which is a more comprehensible and useful form of the spectrum. A straight
line is made to fit in the data to get the relation between channel no. and the corresponding
energy.

3.6.1 Barium - 133

133 Bais one of the most common radioactive isotopes of barium. It has a half-life of approx-
imately 10.51 years. It decays into a 133 Cs nucleus by electron capture which then emits one or
more gamma photons to get stabilized.

Figure 23: Nuclear Decay Reaction of 133 Ba

Two photo peaks are clearly seen in the above spectrum corresponding to 81 keV and 384 keV.
The Compton edge of the photo peak at 384 keV can be seen located at 160 keV. Other peaks are
not visible because of the limited resolution of our detector.

20
 Figure 24: Gamma Spectrum of 133 Ba

3.6.2 Caesium - 137

Caesium-137 is a radioactive isotope of caesium with a half-life of 30.17 years. Almost 95 per-
cent of it decays by beta emission to a metastable nuclear isomer of barium-137 (Ba-137m). The
remaining 5% directly decays to the ground state of barium-137, which is stable.

Figure 25: Nuclear Decay Reaction of 137 Cs

Ba-137m has a half-life of about 153 seconds and emits a gamma photon of energy 662 keV to
get stabilized.

21
 Figure 26: Gamma Spectrum of 137 Cs

A single photo peak is obtained corresponding to 662 keV gamma ray emission. The backscat-
tered peak can also be seen at 220 keV.

3.6.3 Cobalt - 57
Co-57 is a radioisotope of cobalt having half-life of 271.8 days.

Figure 27: Nuclear Decay Reaction of 57 Co

Only a single photo peak is obtained corresponding to 136 keV.

22
 Figure 28: Gamma Spectrum of 57 Co

3.6.4 Cobalt - 60

Figure 29: Nuclear Decay Reaction of 60 Co

Photo peaks at 1173 keV and 1332 keV correspond to the gamma rays emitted by the radioactive
species. The backscattered peak is present at 250 keV. A small sum peak can be seen at 2500 keV.
A signal corresponding to this energy is obtained in the rare case when both the gamma photons,
of energy 1173 keV and 1332 keV, are detected simultaneously.

23
 Figure 30: Gamma Spectrum of 60 Co

3.6.5 Sodium - 22
22 Na has the half-life of 2.6 years. It decays into 22 Ne by emitting a positron (β + decay).

Figure 31: Nuclear Decay Reaction of 22 Na

A very small fraction (0.06%) of the decays leads directly to the ground state of neon. The
rest leads to an excited state of neon, partly via electron capture (9.5%) from the inner atomic
shell, but mainly via positron emission. The excited neon state passes into the ground state by
emitting a 1274 keV γ-photon. The lifetime of this excited neon is only 3.7 ps. The two photo
peaks correspond to the gamma photons emitted by Na-22 nucleus of energies 511 keV and 1274
keV. The sum peak can be seen at 1780 keV.

24
 Figure 32: Gamma Spectrum of 22 Na

3.7 Energy Resolution

An important parameter for a detector is its resolution which defines how close the energies
between which it can differentiate are. Mathematically, it is defined as

F W HM
Resolution = 100%
E
where,
FWHM = Full Width at Half Maximum of the peak
E = Energy of the peak

When we plot the resolution for each of the 10 peaks we have obtained (8 natural peaks + 2
sum peaks) versus the energy of the peak, we obtain the plot as shown in Figure 33

25
 Figure 33: Resolution - Energy Relation

As evident from the graph in Figure 33, resolution gets better with increasing energy of the
peak. The pulse amplitude, which depends on the no. of photons generated in the scintillator,
is not always same for the same amount of energy lost by a particle in the scintillator since it is
a statistical process. The fluctuation in the pulse amplitude is largely dependent on the no. of
information carriers and the fluctuation in their number is inversely proportional to the square
root of the mean no. of information carriers. Therefore, at higher energies, the no. of information
carriers is more leading to less fluctuations in their number for a similar event which results in
a better resolution.

3.8 Neutron detection using liquid scintillator detectors

As mentioned earlier, it is possible to differentiate between different types of radiations using a
technique called pulse shaped discrimination. For the pulse generated on detection of a particle,
the rise time depends on the detector but the decay time depends on the electronics as well as
the particle that triggered the pulse. Pulses from neutron interaction have a longer decay time
than the ones from gamma ray interactions. This information from the pulse shape is used to
differentiate neutron radiations from gamma radiations. Usually liquid scintillators are used for
neutron detection with 10 B as an additive, which has a large reaction cross section for thermal
neutrons, to increase the neutron detection efficiency.

We used NE-213 liquid scintillator detector and Americium Beryllium as the neutron source.

241 237 4
95 Am → 93 N p +2 α
9 4 12 1
4 Be +2 α → 6 C +0 n + γ

26
 Figure 34: Background Radiation

Figure 35: Spectrum after keeping the Am-Be Source

27
 Figures 34 and 35 are the spectra recorded before and after keeping the neutron source respec-
tively. The plot is between channel nos. corresponding to pulse decay time on the vertical axis
and channel nos. corresponding to energy of the radiation on the horizontal axis. The third axis,
represented through colour variation, corresponds to the counts.

28
4 Resistive Plate Chambers
4.1 Basic Overlay
Resistive plate chambers (RPCs) are parallel-plate gas detectors mainly used to track muons.
They were introduced in 1981 by R. Santonico and R.Cardarelli. They consist of two parallel plates
made up of high resistive material such as Bakelite or Glass separated by a gas volume of about 2
mm. The separation is maintained throughout the gap using small plastic button shaped spacers
of constant thickness. A gas mixture of freon, isobutane and sulphur hexafluoride at a definite
ratio by volumes is made to flow through the gap. The resistive sheets are coated with conductive
graphite paint from the outside in order to apply potential difference across the gap.

Figure 36: Resistive Plate Chamber Cross Section

When a muon traverses the gap, it ionizes some of the gas molecules in its way, generating
and electron ion pair. Since a high voltage is applied across the gap, these particles start drifting
towards the oppositely charged electrode. The ion, since it’s usually much heavier than the
electron, doesn’t accelerate nearly as fast as the electron when subjected to the same electric
field. Hence it doesn’t make much of a difference. But the quick motion of the electrons induces
a pulse in the copper strips on the readout planes which is read by the Data Acquistion System
(described later in the section).

29
4.2 The Plates
The resistive plates are usually composed of either glass or bakelite. The main motive behind
using resistive plates is to limit and localize the charge deposited by the avalanche. This results
in good spatial resolution.

4.2.1 Bakelite Gaps

Bakelite is the trade name for phenol formaldehyde resin. It is a highly resistive material
(≈ 1010 Ωm), but its resistivity is a sensitive function of the humidity and temperature. Usually
bakelite sheets of 2mm thickness are used to make gaps. Their dielectric constant typically varies
between 4.4 to 5.4.

Because of their light weight, they are easy to carry. Apart from that, their effiency and high
resistivity makes bakelite a good choice for making gaps.

4.2.2 Glass Gaps

Glass (SiO2 ) has a density of 2500 kg/m3 . It’s resistivity is in the order of 1011 Ωm. One major
advantage in glass gaps is that its resistivity doesn’t vary a lot with the temperature and pressure.
However, in contrast to bakelite gaps, because of their low compressive strength, for a plate as
large as 1 m2 , it’s thickness has to be a minimum of 3mm or even a small shear strain can cause
it to crack. This, in addition to the higher density of glass in comparison to bakelite causes it to
be approximately 2.75 times heavier than a bakelite gap of the same area.

For these reasons, bakelite gaps are usually more expensive than glass gaps. However, since
glass gaps are more economically feasible, they are used more widely for testing and laboratory
experimentation purposes.

4.3 The Gases

The gas that is made to flow through the gap is a mixture of Freon (R-134a), Isobutane and
Sulphur Hexafluorde.

4.3.1 Freon (C2 H2 F4 )

The fraction of Freon used in the gas mixture is 95.2%. Since muons are minimum ionizing
particles, a dense gas is used to increase the number of molecules ionized, which in turn results
in a stronger signal. Freon constitutes major portion of the gas mixture primarily due to this
reason.

30
 When an avalanche is created, it can spread to a huge area which might decrease the precision
of the readout planes. This leads to another important reason why this gas is added. Fluorine be-
ing a highly electronegative element can attract and slow down the electrons during an avalanche
thereby reducing considerably the area across which a signal is generated.

4.3.2 Isobutane (C4 H10 )

Isobutane constitutes 4.5% of the gas mixture. Apart from ionizing the gas molecules, the
incoming muons or the free electrons formed during the avalanche can also cause excitation in
some of the atoms. When that occurs, the atom will stabilize spontaneously by releasing the
absorbed energy in the form of a photon. That photon is free to travel anywhere through the
gap and can ionize or excite other atoms in the gap and consequently cause avalanches in other
locations too.

To prevent that, isobutane is used. It absorbs the high energy photons and dissociates into
radicals which prevents the photon from generating more free electrons. This is done to point
out with more accuracy where the primary ionization took place.

4.3.3 Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6 )

This gas constitutes 0.3% of the gas mixture. During the operation, the electric field inside the
gap is typically of the order of 106 V/m. A field of this intensity can cause the gas to electrically
breakdown and the plates to spark and discharge. Sulphur Hexafluoride being a gas with rela-
tively high resistivity is added to prevent that from taking place. Also, the electronegativity of
the fluorine atoms help in the same way as it does for the Freon gas.

4.4 Readout Planes

The readout planes are used to get the coordinates of where the primary ionization takes place.
A single readout plane consists of parallel copper strips laminated with an insulating material

31
called G-10. When an avalanche is created in the gap, the electrons drift towards the positive
plate. The motion of the electrons induces an electric impulse in the copper strips.

While assembling our RPC, we kept two readout planes that were perpendicular to each other
in order to get the co-ordinates of where the muon passed through in two dimensions. The
impulse from the copper strips is fed into the frontend board through coaxial cables.

4.4.1 Coaxial Cables

As the name says, coaxial cables are comprised of coaxial layers of different materials each of
which serve different purposes. In the centre is a wire made of copper to transmit the required
signal which is covered by a dielectric material (usually Teflon or Polyethylene). The next layer
consists of another copper layer which is grounded. It shields the signal carrying wire from exter-
nal electromagnetic disturbances and also provides the return path for the signal. However, this
type of cable can’t be used for long distance transmission as the signal gets attenuated quickly.

Figure 37: Coaxial Cable

4.4.2 Frontend Boards (FEBs)

The frontend board is an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) which serves three
main purposes as follows.

Discriminator : The front end board allows us to set a threshold for the signal amplitude.
What this means is that all the signals below that value will be ignored. This is done in order to
eliminate noise.

Pre-Amplifier : The signal obtained from the readout planes are pretty weak in magni-
tude. Hence, after eliminating the noise, the FEB amplifies the signal by an order of 80-100 for
further processing.

Convertor : As mentioned earlier, the NIM (Nuclear Instrumentation Module) signal

from the coaxial cables get attenuated quickly and cannot be transmitted distances in the order of
a few metres. Therefore it is needed to convert the signal into a LVDS (Low Voltage Differential
Signal) which can be transmitted through twisted pair cables over much longer distances wihout
attenuation.

4.4.3 Twisted-Pair Cables

Also known as Flat Cables, this form of cables allow signals to be transmitted over longer
distances without attenuation.

32
 In balanced pair operation, the two wires carry equal and opposite signals and the destination
detects the difference between the two. This is known as differential mode transmission. Noise
sources introduce signals into the wires by coupling of electric or magnetic fields and tend to
couple to both wires equally. The noise thus produces a common-mode signal which is cancelled
at the receiver when the difference signal is taken.

This method starts to fail when the noise source is close to the signal wires; the closer wire
will couple with the noise more strongly and the common-mode rejection of the receiver will fail
to eliminate it. This problem is especially apparent in telecommunication cables where pairs in
the same cable lie next to each other for many miles. One pair can induce crosstalk in another
and it is additive along the length of the cable. Twisting the pairs counters this effect as on each
half twist the wire nearest to the noise-source is exchanged.

4.5 Operating Modes

RPCs can be operated in two different modes namely ’Avalanche mode’ and ’Streamer mode’.

4.5.1 Avalanche mode

The RPC is operated at a comparatively lower voltage, usually around 10kV. As the muon causes a
primary ionization in the chamber the accelerating electrons strike out other electrons from their
shells. This process continues till the internal electric field due to the ions is equal to the applied
electric field, hence creating an avalanche. The pulses are typically of the order of millivolt and
require amplification. The signals are very fast with a rise time of less than 5 ns.

4.5.2 Streamer mode

The RPC is operated at higher voltages which causes the secondary ionizations to take place
until breakdown point for the gas is reached and a continuous discharge occurs. The amplitude
of the pulse is considerably high ( 100mV) and requires no amplification. However, the count
rate capability of the detector is greatly reduced and operating the RPC in this mode increases
its aging.

4.6 Data Acquisition

The signals are transferred from the Front End Boards to the Data Acquisition System through
flat cables. The system consists of Multi Hit Time to Digital Converters (TDCs). The TDCs record
the timing information of the signal from various channels relative to a zero set arbitrarily for
every event. It then assigns the time stamp for each signal, a number which can be calibrated
to get the actual time difference between two signals. This data is stored in root files which are
further processed to get the desired information like efficiency of the detectors, muon tracks, etc.

33
5 Pre-Assembly Testing
5.1 Leak Test
At voltages as high as 10000 V, even minute changes in the pressure inside the gap can result
in a huge change in the electric field inside the gap. Therefore it is essential that the gas mixture
does not leak from the gap. No system can be totally leak proof; hence we perform a test to check
how much gas is leaked from the gap during an arbitrary interval of time. The leak rate of the
gap is measured as decrease in pressure inside the gap per unit time. It is then compared with
the international standards set by CERN to see if our gap can be used commercially.

To check our gap for the same, we set the pressure inside the gap at 15 mBar above the atmo-
spheric pressure. The pressure was recorded every second and the plot was fit linearly. The slope
of that line gave us the required leak rate.

Figure 38: Leak Test

Our calculations indicate that the leak rate for our RPC was 16.8 mPa s-1 ; which is within the
operational limits. Hence, this gap passed the leak test.

5.2 Spacer Test

Spacers are an important part of the RPC gaps. They are small button shaped discs each with
a width of 2 mm. It is made up of polycarbonates which is a highly resistive material. These are
placed in the gap in order to ensure a uniform separation between the plates. This is extremely
important because with potential differences in the order of 104 Volts, even a minute variance in
the distance between the plates due to the weight of the plate, the pressure difference or other
external factors, can result in a significant change in the electric field.

To deduce if an RPC is fit for experimental purposes, we need to check if each spacer is intact
and can handle sudden external changes in pressure. So we apply some pressure manually on
each spacer one by one and note down the increase in the internal pressure. If we plot the
internal pressure with time, we would see a spike in the graph for each spacer pressed. The

34
international standard set for the spacer test is that upon application of external pressure, the
change in internal pressure shouldn’t exceed 1mBar. Figure 39 shows the plot of our recorded
data. The spikes represent the increase in pressure inside the gap as we apply pressure on the
spacers. As we can see, the change in pressure at T = 3652 s is more than 100 Pa (mbar). Hence,
the RPC had failed the spacer test.

Figure 39: Spacer Test

35
6 Characterization of RPCs
6.1 High Voltage Test
As the name says, this test is done to see if our gap can handle high enough voltage for our
purposes. We set a limit for the leakage current at 10µA which is well above the standard op-
erational current. It means that if at any instance the current goes beyond that value, the gap is
said to “trip” and the system immediately stops providing voltage to the gap. When we increase
the voltage, depending on the magnitude of increase and the time it takes, the current typically
jumps to a much higher value than expected and keeps fluctuating for a couple of minutes be-
fore stabilizing at a constant value. Also, the voltage at which the gap trips can give us some
information about what exactly went wrong while assembling the RPC and debugging it might
help us to prevent similar mistakes in the future. For these reasons, it is important to increase
the voltage in small steps instead of directly applying a voltage of let’s say 10000 V.

To test our gap, we increased the voltage in steps of 1000V till we reached 8000V. Then went
on to 8500 and 9000V. And after that, we increased the voltage in steps of 100V till we reached
10000V. And for each step we waited for approximately 1-2 minutes. Since the current never
reached near the maximum permissible leakage current, we concluded that our gap passed the
high voltage test.

6.2 IV Characteristics
For any electronic device, its IV characteristics denotes a relationship, typically represented
as a graph, between the current flowing through the device and the corresponding potential
difference across it. For a RPC, we plot the leakage current through the gaps against the potential
difference applied.

It’s important to note that unlike the high voltage test, while plotting the IV characteristics,
before noting the leakage current, we must give it enough time to stabilize at a particular value.
For our purposes, it was enough to wait for about 10-12 minutes before changing the voltage in
the same steps as before.

Figures 40 and 41 are the IV characteristics of the two RPCs we assembled.

36
Figure 40: MT1 IV Characteristics

Figure 41: MT2 IV Characteristics

37
 In general, the IV Characteristics of RPCs can be divided into three main regions :

Ohmic Region : When applied voltage is less than around 8000 V leakage current is
directly proportional to the applied voltage. Gas acts as a perfect insulator and most of the
current passes through the spacers.

Avalanche Region : Ionizations start in the gas due to the incoming particles and the
drifting electrons collide with other gas molecules and knock out more electrons with each colli-
sion to create an avalanche. The leakage current is no longer proportional to the applied voltage.
This phenomenon occurs when during its relaxation time, the electron gains enough energy to
ionize the next atom it collides with. This is the region where we operated our RPCs.

Streamer Region : At very high voltages (¿10000 V) huge currents are drawn from the
electrodes and the electrons in the gas atoms upon de-excitation releases photons which in turn
knock out more electrons through photoelectric effect or compton scattering in other locations.
The current, once again, is directly proportional to the applied voltage.

6.3 Long Term Monitoring

In order to ensure the validity of the results provided by the RPC, it is essential that it maintains
a constant current over a large period of time when subjected to a constant potential difference.
To test our RPC for the same, we applied a potential difference of 9700V across the plates for
18 hrs and monitored the leakage current. As we can see from the graphs in Figure 42(a-d), the
current nearly stayed the same throughout the duration of the scan. Hence, our gap passed the
long term monitoring test.

Figure 42: Long term monitoring plots.

38
6.4 Efficiency Scan
In order to find the efficiency of our detector we set it inside the hodoscope where a combina-
tion of two triggering planes and a paddle is used for the purpose. Voltage applied to the gaps
is ramped up in pre-defined steps and efficiency at each step is recorded on the basis of a set
number of triggers (1000 in our case). Efficiency is defined as the number of times the detector
has responded to a valid trigger divided by the total no. of valid triggers. It is necessary for
the efficiency plot to have a sigmoid shape and the maximum efficiency should remain almost
constant for at least 300V. Figures 6.4-6.4 shows the efficiency plots for the four gaps.

39
40
6.5 Strip Profile
A strip profile is a histogram of the number of signals generated by each strip in the read-
outplane. With the help of the strip profile we can tell if all the strips are firing properly. On
a macro scale, it typically depends on the geometrical arrangement of the trigger mechanism.
However, slight asymmetries in the electronics can also cause minute variations in the plot. The
strip profiles of RPCs are shown in Figure 43(a-d).

41
Figure 43: Strip Profiles

42
7 Muon Track Analysis
For muon tomography it is important to analyze the tracks of the muons with high precision.
For that purpose, we need not only highly efficient RPCs, but also intelligent software to manage
all the data and extract meaningful information from it. The data obtained from the TDCs is in
the form of a binary .root file. Using software called ROOT-CERN, an object oriented framework
for large scale data analysis, we can read the root file in a graphical interface and access and
manipulate the data recorded by each channel in the TDC for each event.

7.1 Generating the tracks

Using a software in C++ that we contributed to, we can extract all the information from the root
file in a systematic way. If we calibrate the channel no. of each fired strip for each event with the
geometrical location of the respective strips in the detector, we can get the physical coordinates
of the points where the muon trajectory intersected our detector. Using ROOT, we can generate
images like the ones in Figure 44, of the actual tracks of muons. This data was recorded at 10200
V during our last efficiency scan. For generating the tracks, we only considered events where
exactly one strip was fired in each of the 4 readout planes. Out of the 1000 events recorded during
that scan, only 156 events satisfied our constraints.

Figure 44: Validated muon Tracks

7.2 Track Validation

Once we get the coordinates of point of detection, we only need two detectors separated by
a certain distance to obtain the trajectory of the muon. But in order to ensure that the event
corresponds to a valid muon track, we need to have at least another parallel RPC to validate the
track generated by the first two. We have already assembled 2 RPCs and since assembling a third
would take quite some time, we chose to implement a simpler but less efficient method to validate
the tracks for the time being. Instead of using another RPC with 2 perpendicular readout planes,
we used the scintillators to validate the tracks.

In the initial stage of the software, we had placed a constraint on the number of fired strips
in each readout plane and scintillator plane at 1. that is, we ignored all the events where in
atleast one readout plane or scintillator plane, more than one strip was fired. We then generated
a track by first mapping the fired strips in each detector to a global coordinate system and math-
ematically geomtrically extrapolating it to find the point of intersection of the track with the

43
scintillator planes. Then we mapped the calculated coordinate to the corresponding scintillator
and compared the value with the actual scintillator fired for the event in question. If and only
if there’s a match in both the scintillator planes did we count it as a valid track. With this algo-
rithm, we were able to achieve 30 validated tracks out of the total 131 events for which exactly
one strip was fired in each readout plane and scintillator plane.

At the same time, we also added a feature that tells us if the calculated point is arbitrarily
close to the actual fired scintillator. This increased the number of validated tracks to 42 when the
calculated point was allowed to be upto 3 cms away from the actual fired scintillator.

In further updates we made provisions for allowing more number of fired strips in the detectors
and then checking the validation of the track generated by each pair of coordinates available. As
expected, this resulted in a massive increase in the number of validated tracks to 104 and 112
respectively when we increased the constraint on the number of fired strips in the detecctors to
2 and 3 respectively. But the problem of the low validity fraction still wasn’t solved because while
we increased the allowed cluster size for the detectors, the total number of events that satisfied
the constraints also increased in a similar proportion.

Since in a typical hodoscope, the detectors and the triggering planes might not be perfectly
aligned, in the next version of the software, we implemented a feature which allows us to map
each fired pixel to a generalized global coordinate system. This technique of coordinate trans-
formation might help in recognizing the actual errors in the physical alignment of the detectors
relative to each other if we assume that the number of validated tracks form a local maxima rel-
ative to the position and alignment of the detectors when they are placed ideally. This method is
important as it can be potentially used to realize the errors in the arrangement of the hardware
using a software.

7.3 Imaging
We know that muons get scattered due to Coulomb force when they interact with other ma-
terials, the scattering angle being directly proportional to the atomic number of the material it
interacts with. In a material of a given thickness, muons undergo multiple coulomb scattering
and come out at some angle. The track of the muon after getting scattered will be recorded using
3 other RPCs. A calibration will be performed with several samples with different atomic number
and thicknesses. After the calibration is done we can use this system to generate 3 dimensional
images of composite materials with elements of different atomic number. A few algorithms re-
garding generating image from tracks are discussed below.

7.3.1 Point of Closest Approach (POCA)

The particle is assumed to have undergone single scattering. Hence the point of closest ap-
proach for the incoming track and the outgoing track is considered to be the point of scattering
which would lie inside the scatterer. A 3 dimensional image of the scatterer is thus formed using
this information. In real scenarios, however, this is not the case. The particle undergoes multiple
coulomb scattering and it is not necessary that the closest point of approach of the two tracks
should lie inside the scattering object. Also the algorithm will fail to give accurate information
about the material of the object. Hence, a more advanced algorithm is required for trustworthy
results.

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7.3.2 Expectation Maximization (EM)
This algorithm finds maximum likelihood of parameters in a model which depends on un-
known latent variables. In our case, the imaging depends on the atomic number of the object
as well as the thickness (distance travelled by muon, more precisely) which are unknown and
the information we have is in the form of the deviation of the muon after passing through the
scatterer.

In Expectation Maximization algorithm an initial guess for the parameters is made. The first
step (Expectation step) involves creating a function for the expectation of the log-likelihood using
the current estimates for the parameters. In the next step (Maximization step) better estimates for
the parameters are computed which would maximize the log-likelihood. This process is repeated
until we get the value of the parameters up to the desired accuracy. This algorithm is slow but, is
expected to give much more meaningful results. It is widely used in finding solutions for many
statistical models.

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 Summary
Muons are highly penetrating particles that fall on the earthfis surface at the rate of 1 per
cm2 per minute through the interaction of cosmic rays with our atmosphere. Due to their high
penetrating power they are ideal for imaging objects under heavy shielding and this technique is
called Muon Tomography. Muon tomography is a fast technique to detect high-Z elements thus
preventing them from being smuggled across borders. It has already been employed at many
sites around the world and the project is under its initial stages in India

We are using Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) for detecting cosmic muons. They are cheap
large area detectors and have a rate counting capability of 1 kHz/cm2 . The coordinates of a point
on the muon track are obtained using one RPC. A combination of 3 RPCs will give us 3 points
on the same track which will allow us to reconstruct the straight line track. The deviation in the
muon track after passing through an object will be analyzed to identify the atomic number and
shape of the object

We have assembled two RPCs with two 1 square meter glass gaps each. Two orthogonal readout
planes separated physically and electrically by a ground plane are used for reading the signals
from the gaps. These RPCs have been fully characterized and are ready to be used for recording
muon tracks

Both the RPCs were placed inside the hodoscope and the voltage in the gaps was ramped up
in steps with 1000 events in each step. Muon tracks were generated using the data from the data
acquisition system recorded for these events. A validity check was performed for these tracks
from the information of the fired scintillators in the top and bottom triggering planes

There is a need to assemble at least two more RPCs and record data with different types of
scatterers of varying atomic number and thickness to analyze the scattering of muons from them
and then create a database for the software which would generate a 3-D image of the scattering
object from the information obtained using tracks only

From the software point of view, stronger algorithms have to be explored for fast and efficient
imaging of objects. Also, the software has to be made user-friendly by incorporating Graphical
User Interface.

Due to shortage of time, we couldn’t assemble a third RPC and hence complete the track
validation project.

46
 Appendix I : Connection Details
This appendix includes technical details for future reference about the electrical and gas connec-
tions that have been made while assembling our RPCs.

Table 1: Details of Connections to Photo Multiplier Tubes

Location Cable Name Voltage (V) Current(µA)
F3 -1800 360
F4 -1800 360
Back
F5 -1800 360
F6 -1800 360
Top
Y3 -1800 360
Y4 -1800 360
Front
Y5 -1800 360
Y6 -1800 360
R3 -1800 360
R4 -1800 360
Back
R5 -1800 360
R6 -1800 360
Bottom
3 -1800 360
4 -1800 360
Front
5 -1800 360
6 -1800 360
Paddle padshort -1800 360

Table 2: RPC Connections

RPC MT1 MT2
Shelf No. 3 9
Gas Channel 3 5
Slow Control 1 5
Low Voltage Supply 1B 3A
Module No. on CAEN SY2527 4 4
Port No. on SY2527 0 4
RPC High Voltage Top Gap
Cable No. 13 4
Port No. on SY2527 1 5
Bottom Gap
Cable No. 14 5
Flat Cables Shelf #3 Shelf #5

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 Appendix II : Gas Calibration
As stated earlier, RPCs require a steady flow of the gas mixture. We set these flow rates using
electronic flow control devices. It is necessary to make sure that the gas flow rate is close to the
value that we have set. This appendix contains information about the gas mixing system that is
required for calibrating the gas flow rate with the value we set electronically for the same. In
order to do that, we use water displacement method to estimate the amount of gas flown out per
unit time and plot it against the set value.

We perform this test with each of the three gases we use in our RPC gap : Freon(C2 H2 F4 ),
Isobutane(C4 H10 ) and Sulphur Hexafluoride(SF6 )

Freon

Figure 45: Freon Flow Rate

Isobutane

48
 Figure 46: Isobutane Flow Rate

Sulphur Hexafluoride

Figure 47: Sulphur Hexafluoride Flow Rate

49
 Bibliograhy
1. CERN Web Page : http://cms.web.cern.ch/

2. India-based Neutrino Observatory : http://www.ino.tifr.res.in/ino/

3. W. R. Leo - Techniques for Nuclear and Particle Physics Experiments

4. G. F. Knoll - Radiation Detection and Measurement

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