Performance of a full scale prototype detector at the BR2 reactor for the SoLid experiment

Yamiel Abreu, Y. Amhis, Lukas Arnold, G. Ban, Wim Beaumont, Mathieu Bongrand, Delphine Boursette, B.C. Castle, Keith Clark, Bernard Coupé, David Cussans, Albert De Roeck, J. D'Hondt, D. Durand, M. Fallot, Lars Ghys, L. Giot, Benoit Guillon, Sakari Ihantola, X. JanssenSilva Kalcheva, Leonidas Kalousis, Edgar Koonen, Mathieu Labare, Gregory Lehaut, Luis Manzanillas, Jeroen Mermans, Ianthe Michiels, Celine Moortgat, Dave Newbold, Jaewon Park, Valentin Pestel, K. Petridis, Ibrahin Pinera, G. Pommery, Lucia Popescu, G. Pronost, J. Rademacker, Dirk Ryckbosch, Nick Ryder, Daniel Saunders, M.-H. Schune, Laurent Simard, Antonin Vacheret, Steven Van Dyck, Petra Van Mulders, Nick Van Remortel, Nick Van Remortel, Simon Vercaemer, Verstraeten Maja, Alfons Weber, Frederic Yermia

Research outputpeer-review

Abstract

The SoLid collaboration has developed a new detector technology to detect electronanti-neutrinos at close proximity to the Belgian BR2 reactor at surface level. A 288 kg prototype detector was deployed in 2015 and collected data during the operational period of the reactor and during reactor shut-down. Dedicated calibration campaigns were also performed with gamma and neutron sources. This paper describes the construction of the prototype detector with a high control on its proton content and the stability of its operation over a period of several months after deployment at the BR2 reactor site. All detector cells provide sufficient light yields to achieve a target energy resolution of better than 20%/sqrt(E[MeV]). The capability of the detector to track muons is exploited to equalize the light response of a large number of channels to a precision of 3% and to demonstrate the stability of the energy scale over time. Particle identification based on pulse-shape discrimination is demonstrated with calibration sources. Despite a lower neutron detection efficiency due to triggering constraints, the main backgrounds at the reactor site were determined and taken into account in the shielding strategy for the main experiment. The results obtained with this prototype proved essential in the design optimization of the final detector.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberP05005
Number of pages29
JournalJournal of Instrumentation
Volume13
Issue numberP05005
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 May 2018

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