Scientists have developed a new particle detector that can measure incredibly short bursts of electrons lasting just one trillionth of a second, or one picosecond.
The breakthrough could help next-generation particle accelerators reveal how materials, chemicals and biological systems behave at the atomic level.
The new detector was created by the Advanced Accelerator Diagnostics Collaboration, a team that includes researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of California, Davis, and several U.S. national laboratories.
The group came together to solve a growing challenge in particle accelerator technology.
Modern particle accelerators are becoming increasingly powerful and are producing particle beams at much faster rates.
Current facilities generate about 120 pulses per second, but future accelerators are expected to produce as many as one million pulses per second and eventually even more. Existing detector systems simply cannot keep up with these speeds.
To overcome this problem, the researchers designed an entirely new detection system. The device combines lab-grown diamonds, specially designed microchips and advanced assembly methods in a compact package.
Diamonds may seem like an unusual material for scientific instruments, but they have several useful properties. They are highly durable, can withstand radiation and are excellent at handling very fast electrical signals.
These qualities make them ideal for detecting the extremely rapid particle bursts produced by advanced accelerators.
The detector is designed to measure the properties of particle beams generated by facilities such as the Linac Coherent Light Source II at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. These beams are used in a wide range of scientific studies, including research on new materials, chemical reactions and energy technologies.
The team also had to develop new electronics to process the enormous amount of information generated by the detector.
They designed their own integrated circuit chip specifically for this purpose. According to the researchers, no existing technology could both keep pace with the extremely high beam rates and provide the precise measurements needed by scientists.
The detector underwent its first full test at SLAC in July of last year. During the experiment, the researchers exposed the system to electron bursts lasting only one picosecond. The detector successfully measured thousands of beam pulses under different operating conditions.
The results exceeded expectations. The system consistently produced clean and highly precise signals, and its performance closely matched the researchers’ theoretical predictions.
The team is already developing a second version of the detector that will include an improved microchip designed specifically for the tiny diamond sensor. The upgraded system is expected to deliver even faster responses and undergo additional testing later this year.
In the future, the researchers hope to make the detector easy to use as a plug-and-play system that can be adopted by laboratories without specialized expertise.
Beyond particle accelerators, the technology could also have applications in high-energy physics, advanced laser systems and fusion energy research.
By allowing scientists to observe events that occur on extremely short timescales, the new diamond-based detector may open the door to discoveries that were previously impossible to measure.
