Sensors
Silicon Sensors
The Instrumentation Division has been designing, fabricating, and testing silicon (Si) sensors for nearly 40 years. These sensors support a wide range of applications, including imaging, tracking, and spectroscopy across photon science, high-energy physics, and nuclear physics.
Germanium Detectors
With the highest energy resolution among compound semiconductors, germanium (Ge) is the material of choice for the detection of high-energy x-ray and gamma rays in photon science and other fields. With a dedicated cleanroom for Ge wafer processing, the Instrumentation Division develops Ge detectors with reasonable depletion voltages and excellent charge collection efficiency.
Diamond Detectors
We develop high-performance diamond radiation detectors for a variety of applications, including proton beam flux monitoring and synchrotron x-ray imaging. The radiation hardness of diamond makes the detectors adept at measuring protons, alpha particles, and other charged particles for applications in medicine and nuclear nonproliferation. Because of diamond’s high charge-carrier saturation velocity, these detectors are also ideal for ultrafast (picosecond) detection in intense radiation environments.
Room-temperature Semiconductors
Basic research, medical diagnosis and treatment, nuclear power production, radioactive waste disposal, and nuclear security require high-sensitivity, high-resolution radiation detectors operating in field conditions and at ambient temperatures. Brookhaven’s Instrumentation Division is developing several types of room-temperature semiconductor detectors and advanced electronics that can support such applications.
Noble Liquids and Gases
Noble liquids and gases have many characteristics—including high electron and light yield, excellent electron transport, and robust radiation hardness—that make them attractive as ionizing radiation sensors. The Noble Liquid and Gas Detectors Group performs fundamental studies on the physics of noble liquid- and gas-filled radiation detectors, with the goal of achieving the best position and energy resolution and a high counting rate.
Liquid Scintillators
Large-volume organic-liquid scintillator (LS) detectors provide the necessary stopping power and sensitivity required for low-energy particle detection. Brookhaven’s Neutrino and Nuclear Chemistry Group has world-leading expertise and unique capabilities in the development of water Cherenkov detectors and metal-doped and water-based LS detectors ranging in size from tens of tons to kilotons. We have designed detectors for applications including neutrino oscillation experiments, dark matter searches, nuclear nonproliferation activities, double-beta decay searches, and medical imaging studies.
