ELMA project funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) – Jointly proposed by University of Trieste and GSI/FAIR
25.07.2024 |
The ELMA research project, jointly presented by the University of Trieste and GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt, has been awarded €150,000 to conduct a study of the energy response of monolithic silicon pixel sensors (MAPS), thanks to funding provided by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) within the Cultural Cooperation framework between Italy and Germany. The framework aims at facilitating the access of Italian scientists to world-class large research infrastructures and large research centers located in Germany which provide enabling and unique scientific facilities unavailable or absent in Italy.
The ELMA researchers, led by Professor Giacomo Contin at University of Trieste and Professor Silvia Masciocchi at Heidelberg University and GSI, will systematically study the MAPS response to selected particles and particle energies. The collaborators will prepare and characterize functional MAPS samples, in planar and bent geometries, and irradiate them at the GSI/FAIR ion beam facilities. The shape and size of the pixel clusters activated by the impinging particles with different charge number and energy, and the analogue signal information as preserved by the detector logic, will be used to study the response, and accurately calibrate the sensors for further use in the different experimental applications.
MAPS realized in CMOS technology have recently established themselves as the best detectors for the reconstruction of particle trajectories and collision vertices at the core of particle and nuclear physics experiments. They provide spatial information with very high position resolution (down to three micrometers, or 3・10-6 meters) and allow to build very light detector systems that barely disturb the traversing particles, but measure them with highest precision. Such detectors are currently in use in the ALICE experiment at CERN and are planned for use both in CBM and in R3B experiments at FAIR. In the ELMA project, their possible use in other fields, such as medical applications and space observation will also be investigated.
The grant will be used to fund postdoctoral positions and student fellowships to work on the proposed research and the fabrication of the needed data-taking setups. The GSI/FAIR laboratories will make the local irradiation beam facilities available to the project and provide scientific and technical support.
Through the project, the two research groups will put together their resources towards a goal that would be otherwise unachievable by each of the parties alone. The further project outcome will be a long-lasting collaboration between the Italian and German groups, allowing for students and scientific personnel exchange, routinary access to the respective facilities, further joint research initiatives and scientific publications. (CP)
Further information
Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI)
