DOI: 10.14278/rodare.3827
title: Neutron imaging and light output calibration with the miniNOVO prototype at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) Braunschweig

description: This data set contains the experimental raw data from the measurement campaign at PTB in March 2024 funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC).

<strong>Setup:</strong>

The miniNOVO prototype (version 4) consists of 14 organic scintillator elements (7 × M600 and 7 × organic glas scintillator) of the dimensions \(12 × 12 × 140~\text{mm}³\). The scintillator bars have dual readout composed of


 2 × Hamamatsu R7378A (1’’) PMTs<sup>1</sup>,
 4 × Hamamatsu S14161-3050HS-04 SiPM<sup>1</sup> + U301<sup>2</sup> (+ custom front-end electronics) and
 8 × Hamamatsu R2059-01 (2’’) PMTs<sup>1</sup>.


The data was recorded with 2 CAEN V1730S<sup>3</sup> 14-bit, 16-channel digitizers (named dta and dtb) with a sampling frequency of 500 MS/s. A 1’’ CeBr<sub>3</sub>-detector was employed as a reference detector and positioned centrally behind the array. This detector was used for time calibration and time-of-flight measurements as start detector with a Pu-238 source.

The detector array was irradiated head-on with mono-energetic neutron fields at the PIAF accelerator facility (Tandetron accelerator) of the energies \(E_n = \{ 1.2, 2.5, 6.5, 14.8, 17.0, 19.0\}~\text{MeV}\). The array position was shifted in two dimensions in 1 cm increments for the \(14.8~\text{MeV}\) measurements, in 5cm increments for \(17.0~\text{MeV}\) and at 1, 2 and 5 cm in both directions for the remaining energies.

<strong>Data structure:</strong>

The directory <strong>calibration</strong> contains six subdirectories dedicated to the time calibration with the reference detector, the position calibration with a Sr-90 source, the energy calibration with a Bi-207 and a Na-22 source, the gate optimisation and the gain matching. In the <strong>neutron_beam</strong> folder the measurements with the different neutron fields can be found, sorted into the corresponding subdirectory by energy. Waveform data recorded with a Pu-238 source is saved in the <strong>waveform_data</strong> folder and measurements with the reference detector can be found in the <strong>reference_detector</strong> directory. All other measurements and test runs are stored in the <strong>tests</strong> folder. 

<strong>influxDB</strong> holds the slow control data entries in a csv file and the main configuration files for the digitizers are saved in the <strong>DDAQconfig</strong> folder. In <strong>documentation</strong> a pdf-file of the elog providing more detailed information about the individual data files and a pdf-file with the detector setup are stored.

<strong>Data Format:</strong>

All data is saved in root files which each contain two root trees, one for each digitizer, named “dta” and “dtb”. The trees hold the following information in the form of listmode data for each event: digitizer channel ("channel"), charge integrated over long gate ("Elong"), charge integrated over short gate ("Eshort"), digitizer flags ("flags") and the timestamp (separated in three parts: "timestamp", "timestampExtended", "time"). Additionally, the root files also contain an TArrayD which denotes the start time of the measurement in UNIX time at its first index and the stop time at its second.

There are two configuration files for each data file (named “filename_dtx.config”), one for each digitizer card. These text files contain the information about the digitizer settings for each run.

[1] Hamamatsu Photonics Deutschland GmbH, Arzbergerstr. 10, 82211 Herrsching am Ammersee, Germany.

[2] Target Systemelektronik, Heinz-Fangman-Straße 4, 42287 Wuppertal, Germany. 

[3] CAEN S.p.A., Via Vetraia 11, 55049 Viareggio (LU), Italy.
description: The NOVO project has received funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) under grant agreement No. 101130979. The EIC receives support from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.

Partners from The University of Manchester has received funding from UK Research and Innovation under grant agreement No. 10102118