The EuPRAXIA project is a European initiative focused on developing groundbreaking, ultra-compact accelerator research infrastructures based on innovative plasma acceleration concepts. The EuPRAXIA@SPARC LAB facility, hosted by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics at the Frascati National Laboratory, will be the first operating Free Electron Laser (FEL) facility within the...
After over thirty years of serving the international research community, the Elettra synchrotron light source is undergoing a major upgrade. Its successor, Elettra 2.0, will feature a cutting-edge, diffraction-limited storage ring, designed to significantly enhance spatial, energy, and temporal resolution across imaging, scattering, and spectroscopic applications. As part of the upgrade, a new...
X-ray dosimetry is a relevant topic in medicine, industry and research. With the purpose of providing a facility for the characterisation of devices to be used in these fields, a 40-110 kV C-Arm-type medical X-ray unit was adapted to produce X-ray fields with known dose rate and energy distribution, following the recommendations of ISO. It operates with constant kV and continuous or pulsed...
Betatron radiation is X-ray radiation generated by electrons oscillating within a plasma during the Laser WakeField Acceleration (LWFA) process. The relativistic laser-plasma interaction replicates the principle of wiggler emission on a millimeter scale.
Betatron sources stand between Free Electron Lasers (FELs) and synchrotron radiation sources. Due to the small transverse size of the...
BEaTriX, the Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility, is the X-ray calibration facility at INAF-Brera Astronomical Observatory able to create a wide, monochromatic, and collimated X-ray beam in a compact laboratory (9 x 18 m2). This is possible thanks to an innovative optical design that includes a grazing-incidence paraboloidal mirror, in whose focus the micro-focus source is placed, for...
The development of detectors for high-energy photons, protons, and heavy particles has long been a key research topic, not only for fundamental studies but also for radiation monitoring in harsh environments – such as in hospitals during medical treatments and in outer space exploration. In this context, there is a rapidly growing interest in novels, high-performance, thin, and flexible...
Interventional radiology procedures are becoming increasingly common in modern clinical practice, often replacing invasive surgical interventions, despite increasing exposure of medical personnel to X-rays.
New epidemiological data correlating occupational exposure of interventional radiologists to radiation induced cataracts led ICRP to reduce the occupational dose limit for workers from 150...
The Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomograph (J-PET) is the first modular and portable multi-photon PET scanner, which is a multidisciplinary detection system used in medical imaging as well as in fundamental research including discrete symmetry tests in positronium decays [1,2]. In addition to standard PET imaging, the J-PET scanner allows the positronium lifetime imaging in the human body...
Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) is a crystal of particularly high reflectivity. Being a mosaic crystal, it reflects a relatively wide energy window, since it provides crystallites located at the Bragg angle for a relatively wide range of wavelengths. Further efficiency gains can be achieved through mosaic focusing (parafocusing) in the image plane and focusing geometry of graphite...
Homogeneity and thickness of a graphite film affect the performance of dispersive optical elements made by depositing of thin HOPG and HAPG crystals on a substrate of custom shape (Graphite Optics produced by Optigraph GmbH, Germany).
Standard techniques for analysis of carbon layers and compounds require expensive measuring equipment with a vacuum chamber. A new method for fast and...
Intense research activities have been made in the development of room temperature spectroscopic imagers working in the X-ray and gamma ray energy band. Cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) detectors equipped with custom electrode structures have shown interesting performance up to 1 MeV, competing with the superb energy resolutions of high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors (0.3 % FWHM at 662 keV),...
The X-ray diagnostics is an insightful technique to monitor the emission of magnetically confined plasmas. In the PANDORA (Plasmas for Astrophysics, Nuclear decay Observation and Radiation for Archaeometry) INFN project [1] framework, we here present the newly developed energy-space-time resolved diagnostic tool, consisting of a 400 μm lead pinhole coupled with a 4 MP X-ray CCD camera...
Bragg spectroscopy is a consolidated experimental method for high-energy resolution X-ray measurements. However, this technique is limited to the detection of photons produced from point-like or well collimated sources and becomes quite inefficient for photons generated in extended and diffused ones. Also, the possibility to perform simultaneous measurements of several X-ray lines is of great...
Detector performance often hinders the efficiency of advanced synchrotron-based techniques such as X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) spectroscopy measured in fluorescence mode, which is essential for probing the electronic structure and elemental composition. To overcome these limitations, the XAFS-DET WP of the European LEAPS-INNOV project has developed a monolithic multielement...
Muonic atom spectroscopy is a well-established method to accurately determine the root-mean-square (RMS) radii of nuclear charge density distributions and has already delivered the most accurate results for very light (Z < 3) as well as heavier nuclei (Z > 10). However, a gap remains for muonic atoms from lithium to neon due to technological limitations in the relevant energy range (~20–200...
Oxford Instruments X-Ray Technology is a global leader in the design and manufacture
of integrated X-ray solutions. Their low power X-ray tubes feature high stability, high X-ray flux
and small spot sizes and are used for elemental and chemical analysis, particle analysis, Inspection, both XRD and XRF and radiography.
Short introduction of NI (National Instruments) hardware and software platforms for X-Rays measurements. Short overview of case studies within this specific application area
Volumetric imaging of mm-sized soft tissue samples with micron resolution opens new possibilities both in clinical and research settings, driven by the growing need for studying micro and nanoscale structures in a three-dimensional context at the mesoscale.
In this talk I will report the first proof of concept for three-dimensional soft tissue imaging with a laboratory-based x-ray...
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis is a non-destructive technique widely employed in the examination of cultural heritage artifacts. Its capacity to rapidly identify the elemental composition of materials without causing damage makes it an essential tool for analyzing paintings, frescos, manuscripts, pottery, metalwork, glass, and various other artifacts. The advent of portable XRF devices has...
Protein misfolding and aggregation are central to numerous neurodegenerative diseases [Selkoe, Nature, 2003]. In particular, amyloid-β (Aβ) and α-synuclein are key pathological proteins in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, respectively. Brain regions where these aggregates accumulate often exhibit high concentrations of metal ions, making it critically important to understand how metal...
Rowland circle-based and von Hamos spectrometers are the two most popular types of x-ray emission spectrometers. From the application point of view, there are two main categories of acquisition: (i) high energy resolution fluorescence detected x-ray absorption spectroscopy (HERFD XAS) at a constant emission energy and (ii) x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) at a constant excitation energy, and...
"SHADOW" is a ray-tracing program originally developed by Franco Cerrina, widely adopted for the simulation of synchrotron radiation beamlines. Over more than four decades and across three generations of synchrotron sources, SHADOW has played a key role in the design and upgrade of numerous beamlines.
This work presents a comprehensive overhaul of SHADOW, resulting in the development of...
PANDORA (Plasmas for Astrophysics, Nuclear decay Observation and Radiation for Archaeometry) is a multidisciplinary project aimed at investigating β decays in stellar-like ECR plasmas, representing a breakthrough for fundamental studies on weak interactions in astrophysical contexts. The facility will rely on an extended diagnostic system. Among which, the X-rays diagnostic and spectroscopy...
We have developed, assembled and tested a novel device for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) capable of measuring polarization correlations of annihilation quanta. PET is know as an important medical imaging modality with applications in oncology, neurology and cardiology diagnostics. PET relies on detection of a pair of gamma rays created after positron annihilation in tissue. These...
This study investigates cerium migration in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) using a custom in-house X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy system. Cerium serves as a crucial chemical stabilizer in fuel cells, scavenging destructive free radicals through Ce(III)/Ce(IV) redox reactions. However, prolonged operational conditions can induce complex cation migration across the...
X-rays are a standard tool for investigating the properties of metals, from determining their concentrations to probing their specific electronic states. At the National Laboratory of Frascati (LNF), the VOXES apparatus pursues this approach by implementing an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer for extended sources. In this talk, I will present the capabilities of VOXES, highlighting its...
X-ray multimodal imaging is based on the retrieval of phase changes and ultra-small angle scattering (or dark-field) in addition to conventional transmission. The availability of these additional contrast channels has already proven to be valuable in many research fields, including medicine and materials sciences, thanks to the ability to provide superior contrast for soft tissues as well as...
The SIDDHARTA-2 experiment at the DAΦNE collider aims to perform high-precision X-ray spectroscopy of exotic atoms to study the low-energy strong interaction in the strangeness sector. The experiment employs large-area Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) with a thickness of 450 μm, optimised for detecting soft X-rays. To extend the accessible energy range and enable precision measurements of...
Radiation and particle detection systems based on low-gain avalanche diodes (LGAD) are promising technologies for a broad range of applications spanning from timing detectors of minimum ionizing particles in High-Energy Physics (HEP) experiments to soft X-ray detectors in synchrotron, FEL and X-ray fluorescence analysis instruments. LGADs are expected to improve the performance of the...
Hybrid pixel detectors (HPDs) consist in a sensor absorbing the X-ray radiation, usually silicon, connected to the CMOS readout electronics, that processes the signal generated by the sensor signal on a pixel by pixel basis. They were spinned-off from high energy physics tracking applications to photon science at the beginning of the millennium, and they managed to be disruptive in both...
X-ray polarimetry is an observational technique with the potential to enrich our understanding of high-energy astrophysics via the measurement of the polarization of X-rays emitted by exotic cosmic phenomena such as black holes, neutron stars, Gamma-Ray Bursts and Solar flares, enabling to unveil new insights on fundamental physics and geometry of Galactic and extragalactic sources. We will...
Astrophysical X-ray polarimetry is a powerful technique for probing the physical conditions and emission mechanisms of cosmic X-ray sources. At energies below 50 keV, photoelectron track imaging is the leading method for measuring X-ray polarization. In this approach, the track of a photoelectron, produced when an X-ray photon is absorbed, is imaged to reconstruct its initial emission...
X-ray spectroscopy of kaonic atoms provides a unique tool for fundamental physics, enabling precision tests of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in strong electromagnetic fields and the exploration of the strong interaction at low energies with strangeness. In these exotic systems, the electromagnetic cascade of the kaon reveals both QED and strong-interaction effects in the innermost atomic...
Kaonic atoms spectroscopy provides essential observables for investigating low-energy strong interactions in systems with strangeness. I shall present an overview of the SIDDHARTA-2 collaboration’s efforts in this field, with a particular focus on the development and first use of a novel Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride (CZT) detector system for studying intermediate-mass kaonic atoms.
This innovative...
The VIP experiment is pursuing experimental studies of Quantum Mechanics (QM) foundations, investigating models of dynamical wave function collapse and performing high sensitivity tests of the Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) for electrons.
Unification of QM and General Relativity is probably the main ambition of modern physics. Motivated by the awareness that space-time fluctuations would...
*Direct pre-amplifier sampling ADC for high- count rate and high resolution X-ray spectroscopy*
A. Abba1, E. Carlotti2, 1, B. Pedretti2, F. Caponio1, M. Carminati2, C. Fiorini2, C. Tintori3
1 Nuclear Instruments, lambrugo, Italy
2 Politecnico di Milano, DEIB, Milano, Italy
3 CAEN SpA, Viareggio, Italy
Abstract**
This study introduces a novel technique for digital signal processing...
DECTRIS's innovations strive to set new standards in detector technology, driving groundbreaking advancements in scientific research on both X-ray photon and electron science.
Our work addresses the evolving requirements of next-generation synchrotron light sources and high-precision laboratory systems used in diffraction scattering, and spectroscopy.
In parallel, we are expanding the...
MÖNCH is a charge-integrating hybrid pixel detector readout ASIC with 25 μm pitch, currently in the advanced prototyping phase.The small pixel pitch offers excellent native spatial resolution performance which has been demonstrated with several applications such as, full-field fluorescence imaging, computed tomography, and ptychography. With the combination of low noise and charge sharing...
The HASPIDE project, funded by INFN, focuses on the development of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) detectors for applications in X-ray dosimetry. These devices are fabricated on thin Kapton substrates, combining good mechanical flexibility with promising dosimetric performance. The control over the deposition process and the integration on flexible supports make this technology...
The study and the development of innovative imaging detectors represent a crucial element in the field of X-ray imaging, mainly to overcome some of the limits of the standard ones. In this work an overview of the main results obtained during the study and the development of imaging detectors based on optically active point defects produced by X radiation in lithium fluoride (LiF) crystals and...
The organometal halide perovskites (OMHP) semiconductors have been proven in the recent years to be promising material to detect ionization radiation, beside the well known success as photovoltaic devices.
In particular, OHMPs show large potential for X-rays detection due to their high stopping power, especially for energy above 30 keV where the Silicon absorption coefficient starts to...
