Speaker
Description
Moving beyond the conventional paradigm of transparency in detection, the LiquidO collaboration proposes an innovative approach to particle detection. Developed in 2012 and unveiled at CERN in 2019, LiquidO introduces an opaque medium with a short scattering length that stochastically confines light to within centimetres of the point of energy deposition. This light—arising from Cherenkov radiation and, when desired, scintillation—is collected by a dense lattice of optical fibres (wavelength-shifting or scintillating) and read out by fast, high-efficiency single-photon sensors such as SiPMs, together with fast electronics, to provide both static and dynamic topological information. This approach, known as energy flow imaging, allows LiquidO to deliver highly efficient imaging along with the capability to distinguish between charged and neutral elementary particles. At low MeV energies, it provides, for the first time, event-by-event topological discrimination of positrons, electrons, and gamma rays.
LiquidO is an enabling platform that opens new opportinities in neutrino physics, rare-decay searches—specifically double-beta (ββ) and proton decay—and broader applications across fundamental science and innovation.
During its development, we pioneered an ‘opaque scintillation’ approach that removes the need for optical transparency and thus permits high concentrations of metal dopants, expanding the capabilities of the LiquidO detector.
This presentation will showcase results from our most recent prototypes, concluding LiquidO’s first ‘demonstration’ R&D phase. The imaging principle has now been validated, and further investigations are in progress.
| Speaker Confirmation | Yes |
|---|
