Laser-plasma accelerator group

Abstract:

In order to extend the tracking acceptance, to improve the primary and secondary vertex reconstruction and thus enhancing the tagging capabilities for short lived particles, the ZEUS experiment at the HERA Collider at DESY installed a silicon strip vertex detector. The barrel part of the detector is a 63 cm long cylinder with silicon sensors arranged around an elliptical beampipe. The forward part consists of four circular shaped disks. In total just over 200k channels are read out using 2.9 m2 of silicon. In this report a detailed overview of the design and construction of the detector is given and the performance of the completed system is reviewed. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

The cross section for high-ET dijet production in photoproduction has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 81.8pb-1. The events were required to have a virtuality of the incoming photon, Q2, of less than 1GeV2 and a photon-proton center-of-mass energy in the range 14220GeV and ETjet2>15GeV and pseudorapidity (with respect to the proton beam direction) requirements of -1<ηjet1,2<3, with at least one of the jets satisfying -1<ηjet<2.5. The measurements show sensitivity to the parton distributions in the photon and proton and to effects beyond next-to-leading order in QCD. Hence these data can be used to constrain further the parton densities in the proton and photon. © 2007 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

The laser alignment system of the ZEUS microvertex detector is described. The detector was installed in 2001 as part of an upgrade programme in preparation for the second phase of electron-proton physics at the HERA collider. The alignment system monitors the position of the vertex detector support structure with respect to the central tracking detector using semi-transparent amorphous-silicon sensors and diode lasers. The system is fully integrated into the general environmental monitoring of the ZEUS detector and data has been collected over a period of 5 years. The primary aim of defining periods of stability for track-based alignment has been achieved and the system is able to measure movements of the support structure to a precision around 10 μ m. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

Selective enhancement (>103) of harmonics extending to the water window (∼4nm) generated in an argon gas filled straight bore capillary waveguide is demonstrated. This enhancement is in good agreement with modeling which indicates that multimode quasi-phase-matching is achieved by rapid axial intensity modulations caused by beating between the fundamental and higher-order capillary modes. Substantial pulse energies (>10nJ per pulse per harmonic order) at wavelengths beyond the carbon K edge (∼4.37nm, ∼284eV) up to ∼360eV are observed from argon ions for the first time. © 2007 The American Physical Society.