The ALICE Experiment, an acronym for A Large Ion Collider Experiment, is being conducted at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), in Switzerland. It has placed an order for Zecotek Photonics’ Micro-pixel Avalanche Photo Diodes (MAPD-3N).
The ALICE Experiment aims to find answers to fundamental scientific questions. The research being conducted at CERN involves over 105 physics institutes in 30 countries, 200 graduate students, and over 1000 physicists, technicians and engineers. Zecotek Photonics develops advanced photonics technologies for industrial, scientific and medical markets.
Several other orders by other CERN experiments – the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, the NA61 Experiment, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a test bench study by the University of Bergen have led to this MAPD-3N order.
Zecotek’s Chairman, President, and CEO, Dr. A.F. Zerrouk stated that the company’s solid-state MAPD photo detectors belonging to the third generation have become the equipment of choice for replacing older technologies used for detection of photons. CERN, as a critical scientific research center, requires huge quantities of compact photo detectors that are insensitive to magnetic and radiation fields. Zecotek expects further orders for the MAPD, he said.
ALICE Experiment representative, Dr. Petr Nomokonov commented that the Zecotek solid-state MAPD-3N photo detectors possessed important properties necessary for use in calorimeters, regarding radiation hardness, timing resolution, quantum efficiency and low bias voltage. The radiation hardness, compactness and other advantages made it as a potential replacement for its older APD photon counting technology.