SiPM testing for possible next generation detectors

Students and PIs at Davidson College, Virginia State University, Michigan State University, Hope College, Augustana College, and James Madison University are currently constructing and testing SiPMs with plastic scintillators to aid in the design and prototyping of a next generation neutron detector. Custom PCB boards were designed at FRIB and sent to participating MoNA institutions. Davidson College student Ari Maki has been investigating the role of the optical coupling of SiPMs to the scintillators and the reflective wrapping with cosmic rays and collimated gamma rays as part of his honors thesis. Other students have been exploring time and position resolutions, as well as characterizing the performance of different SiPM modules from various vendors.

Scintillator tile with SiPM test board

Davidson College student Ari Maki working with a test module

DNP 2022

The members of the MoNA collaboration were happy to get back into in-person conference mode at DNP-2022! This year's DNP was held in New Orleans, October 27-30. The MoNA Collaboration was well represented with several students participating in the CEU poster session and others giving oral presentations. This included twelve undergraduate students from seven institutions and four graduate students from Michigan State University. Students and faculty gather for a group picture, and Henry Webb of Augustana College poses with his poster.

CAARI 2022

MoNA graduate student Nico Mendez and PI Thomas Baumann attended the 26th International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research & Industry (CAARI 2022) from October 30 to November 3, 2022 in Denton, Texas. The application and detector focused conference brings together scientists, engineers, professors, physicians, and students from all over the world who use particle accelerators in their research and industrial applications. Nico showed “Simulations of the Multi-layer Active target for MoNA Experiments (MAME) with Garfield++” and Thomas talked about the “Next Generation Fast Neutron Detector With High Position Resolution” in their contributed presentations. It was 20 years earlier that Thomas introduced “MoNA The Modular Neutron Array at the NSCL” at this conference!