0000000000585632
AUTHOR
Benedetto Biondo
Atmospheric Background Measurement in the 300–400 nm Band with a Balloon Borne Experiment during a Nocturnal Flight
The balloon borne experiment, named BABY (BAckground BYpass) belongs to a wider program, AIRWATCH-OWL, intended for the observation of high energy Cosmic Rays from space, detecting the faint UV fluorescence light emitted by the atmospheric Nitrogen as final result of a complex hadronic cascade. In this framework, one of the fundamental information concern the knowledge of the background level. This is one of the main parameters that contribute to the sensitivity of any kind of instrument. The apparatus used for the BABY experiment was designed and completely built at the IFCAI-CNR in Palermo. The instrument is composed by two filtered and collimated photomultipliers (PMT) that detect the UV…
Investigation on pixellated CZT detectors coupled with a low power readout ASIC
In this work, we investigated on the spectroscopic performances of two pixellated CZT detectors coupled with a custom low noise and low power readout ASIC. The detectors (10 x 10 x 1 mm3 and 10 x 10 x 2 mm3 single crystals) consist of an array of 256 pixels with a geometric pitch of 0.5 mm. The ASIC, fabricated in 0.8 μm BiCMOS technology, is equipped with eight independent channels (preamplifier and shaper) characterized by a dynamic range from 10 keV to 100 keV, low power consumption (0.5 mW/channel) and low noise (150–500 electrons r.m.s.). The spectroscopic results point out the good energy resolution of both detectors at room temperature (5.8 % FWHM at 59.5 keV for the 1 mm thick detec…
Air fluorescence efficiency measurements for AIRWATCH based mission: Experimental set-up
In the framework of the AIRWATCH project we present an experimental set-up to measure the efficiency of the UV fluorescence production of the air using hard X-ray stimulus. The measures will be carried out at different pressure and temperature to emulate the same condition of the upper layers of the atmosphere where X-ray and gamma ray photons of Gamma Ray Bursts are absorbed.
Extensive air showers and diffused Cherenkov light detection: The ULTRA experiment
Abstract The Uv Light Transmission and Reflection in the Atmosphere (ULTRA) experiment has been designed to provide quantitative measurements of the backscattered Cherenkov signal associated to the Extensive Air Showers (EAS) at the impact point on the Earth surface. The knowledge of such information will test the possibility to detect the diffused Cherenkov light spot from space within the Ultra high-energy cosmic ray observation. The Cherenkov signal is necessary to give an absolute reference for the track, allowing the measurement of the shower maximum and easing the separation between neutrino and hadronic showers. In this paper we discuss the experimental set-up with detailed informati…
The atmospheric nightglow in the 300– wavelength
Abstract The balloon-borne experiment, named BAckground BYpass (BABY) belongs to a wider program that has as its final goal the detection and study of high-energy cosmic rays from space (satellite, Space Station). An information of fundamental importance for this class of projects concerns the nighttime background light. The instrument designed to detect fluorescence photons is basically composed of two collimated photomultipliers: a single photon-counting PMT and a charge integration PMT. We briefly report the details of the design, operation and performance of the detector, which was designed and completely built at the IFCAI–CNR Institute in Palermo. Preliminary analysis and results of t…
Characterization of a CZT focal plane small prototype for hard X-ray telescope
The promise of good energy and spatial resolution coupled with high efficiency and room temperature operation has fuelled a large international effort to develop cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) for hard X-ray applications. We are involved on the development of a hard X-ray telescope based on multilayer optics and focal plane detector operative in the 10-80 keV energy range. This telescope requires a high efficiency focal plane providing both fine spatial resolution and spectroscopy with a compact and robust design. This paper reports preliminary results on the characterization both in spectroscopic and spatial response of two small pixellated CZT detectors (10times10times1 mm3 and 10times10tim…
FIGARO IV: Large-area balloon-borne telescope to study rapid time variabilities in the gamma-ray sources at energies above 50 MeV
We present a new γ-ray telescope based on the Limited Streamer Tube technology, used as tracking chambers to detect photons above 100 MeV. This technique allows to obtain very large sensitive areas (16 m2 in our experiment), together with a good angular resolution for payloads embarcable in high-altitude balloon flights. The capability to collect a large signal in a short exposure time makes the telescope particularly suitable and competitive with respect to satellite-based detectors for studying both periodic and random time variabilities on galactic and extragalactic γ-ray sources.