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Measurement of the radiation environment of the ATLAS cavern in 2017–2018 with ATLAS-GaAsPix detectors

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Published 27 January 2021 © 2021 CERN
, , Citation I. Boyko et al 2021 JINST 16 P01031 DOI 10.1088/1748-0221/16/01/P01031

1748-0221/16/01/P01031

Abstract

A network of ten GaAs:Cr semiconductor Timepix detectors with GaAs:Cr sensors was installed in the ATLAS cavern at CERN's LHC during the shutdown periods 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 in the framework of a cooperation between ATLAS and the Medipix2 Collaboration. The purpose was to augment the existing system of measuring and characterising the radiation environment in the ATLAS cavern that is based on ATLAS-TPX devices with pixelated silicon sensors. The detectors were in continuous operation during 13 TeV proton-proton collisions in 2017–2018. Data were recorded during proton-proton bunch crossings, and during times without bunch crossings (LHC physics runs) as well as between the physics runs. The overall level of particle radiation as well as the ratio between neutral and charged particles were measured. The detectors recorded all interactions of charge particles, neutrons and photons in GaAs sensors, in which the signal was higher than 6.5 keV in individual pixels. This made it possible to register clusters (tracks) of individual radiation particles interacting in the detectors sensors. During LHC beam-beam collisions, these were all particles represented in the radiation field. In the periods without beam-beam collisions, these were photons and electrons resulting from radioactivity induced during previous collisions in GaAs detectors and in surrounding construction materials, namely by neutrons.

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© 2021 CERN. Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Sissa Medialab. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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10.1088/1748-0221/16/01/P01031