Bringing the power of nanotechnology to particle physics
Bringing the power of nanotechnology to particle physics (Nanowerk News) Particle physicists are on the hunt for light. Not just any light, but a characteristic signal produced by the interaction of certain particles — like ghostly neutrinos, which are neutral fundamental particles with very low mass — with a detector that contains an atomic sea of liquefied noble gases. Even if it were brighter, this light signal would be undetectable by our eyes because it falls in the ultraviolet (UV) range of the electromagnetic spectrum. And just as our eyes are not equipped to see UV light, most conventional photodetector systems for particle physics experiments work much better in the visible range than they do in UV. However, new work at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is bringing the power of nanotechnology to particle physics in an effort to make photosensors work better in experimental environments where UV light is produced, like massive liquid argon-...