Fermilab Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors
SMSPDs are superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. Fermilab made a huge advance in developing quantum sensors to track high-energy particles and discover dark matter. SMSPDs, superconducting microwire single-photon detectors, intrigue particle physics researchers. This landmark study addresses them.
Technology: Why SMSPDs Matter
SMSPDs, ultrasensitive quantum sensors, are improving particle physics timing and detection. Future accelerator-based investigations that require precise particle identification and tracking may require these features.
Compared to older sensors, the study shows significant technology improvement. Modern microwires have a larger active area than superconducting nanowire single photon detectors. They are better for high-intensity colliders because their increased surface area makes tracking charged particles easier.
Sensor fabrication has also been optimized. Recent work at the CERN accelerator test beam facility used sensors made of thicker tungsten silicide sheet than before. The main premise is that a larger wire may absorb more energy from high-energy charged particles, improving time resolution and detection efficiency.
CERN Experiments and Muon Detection
The Fermilab study proved SMSPDs could detect single high-energy charged particles like protons, electrons, and pions. The CERN study builds on that. The new studies went farther by evaluating muon detection efficiency for the first time.
Muons are particularly popular among scientists worldwide. These particles allow scientists to study fundamental forces and particles better than other leptons due to their unique properties and 200 times heavier mass than electrons. The detection of muons with superconducting microwire single-photon detectors is a major advance for global consortia investigating a high-energy muon collider.
In future high-energy collider experiments, millions of events per second are expected. To handle this large amount of data, detectors must follow particles with increasing precision in space and time, and SMSPD sensors are suited for this.
Looking for Dark Matter
Even while tracking particles in colliders is the major goal, SMSPDs are equally vital in dark matter research. In the Journal of Instrumentation, project scientists presented the first full temperature-dependent analysis of an SMSPD sensor array. The array's suggested use in low-background dark matter detection tests reflects this new technology's “rapid pace” of development.
Cooperative Work
These quantum sensors were developed through Fermilab-led collaboration. Important allies:
Caltech
NASA's JPL
Geneva University
The CERN research team included many scientists. Photographed at the test beam were Cristián Peña, Thomas Sievert, Manish Sahu, Alex Albert, Elise Sledge, Adi Bornheim, Christina Wang, Artur Apresyan, Shuoxing Wu, Towsif Taher, Guillermo Reales Gutierrez, and Boris According to Fermilab and Caltech scientist Si Xie, these devices can promote new physics findings, while Fermilab scientist Cristián Peña underlines considerable improvement from initial data.
Fermilab's Broader Quantum Ecosystem
The SMSPD investigation is part of Fermilab's comprehensive AI and quantum research efforts. More recent advances have strengthened this mission:
The Quantum Science Center and Quantum Systems Accelerator partnered to operate cryoelectronic ion traps at Fermilab and MIT Lincoln Laboratory, enabling scalable quantum computing.
AI & Machine Learning: Fermilab researchers developed an open-source neural network enhancement framework. This method allows hardware to make rapid judgments to prioritize enormous volumes of data from ambitious physics experiments.
Laser laboratory construction for MAGIS-100, the world's largest vertical atom interferometer, is complete. The 100-meter equipment detects the smallest signals from the universe's farthest reaches to identify new physics phenomena. In conclusion
Fermilab remains the foremost US particle physics and accelerator lab. The Fermi Forward Discovery Group leads the laboratory to “bring the world together to solve the mysteries of matter, energy, space, and time” for the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy. The creation of superconducting microwire single-photon detectors advances science's understanding of the universe's fundamental components.
