Zecotek Photonics Inc., a developer of leading-edge photonics technologies for industrial, healthcare and scientific markets, today announced that CERN's associated scientific team, working on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the University of Virginia, has ordered Zecotek's thin LFS crystal plates manufactured specifically for its shashlik designed calorimeter. The LFS crystal plates supplied by Zecotek have a nominal thickness of 1.5mm.
"We are pleased that Zecotek has been able to supply thin LFS crystal plates for our shashlik design calorimeter," said Professor Brad Cox, leader of the University of Virginia, CERN's Compact Muon Solenoid experiment. "We have found their LFS crystals to have the energy resolution and radiation hardness required for our CMS experiments. By using thin LFS crystal plates, we plan to reduce the technical and costs risks associated with measurement in such experiments. The aim is to provide data for ongoing design evaluations to service the very high energies."
"Our thin LFS plates continue to have the unmatched cost and performance advantages that are being demanded by CERN's higher energy experiments," said Dr. A.F. Zerrouk, Chairman, President, and CEO of Zecotek Photonics Inc. "The present LFS crystal order follows a series of orders for ongoing tests to identify an optimum design solution for the main part of the CERN experiment. We look forward to working closely with the CERN team at the University of Virginia who are leading the LFS plates based design configuration for the major CMS experiment."
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a large experiment based in Geneva, Switzerland with many participating laboratories from around the world contributing and having a significant impact to the overall experiment. The CMS group at the University of Virginia has been very active with the search for new particles produced by the LHC. Among other activities, the scientific team at University of Virginia has participated in the preparation, installation, commissioning and operation of the electromagnetic detector of CMS experiment which is the most important subdetector used in the search for the Higgs boson. The team also has taken an active role on analysis review committee of the huge amount of data produced.
The CMS Experiment is one of two large general-purpose particle physics detectors built on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It is composed of three main components: scintillation material, photo-detectors and the ubiquitous electronic system. Zecotek's LFS plates were originally tested for use in CERN's high energy experiments because of their density of material, stopping power, fast decay time, very good energy resolution, unique radiation hardness, and competitive effective price.
In March 2013, CERN scientists confirmed that a new subatomic particle discovered at the world's most powerful particle accelerator is the Higgs Boson. As CERN pushes into this new frontier of science, additional experiments are required to determine the particle's properties and its true form. High-energy scintillation crystals with high radiation hardness and solid-state photo detectors are paramount for the success of the next stage of experiments. The super high energy experiments are planned to be up and running within the next 3 to 4 years.