Development of transparent silica aerogel over a wide range of densities
Instrumentation and Detectors2011-12-22v1Earth and Planetary AstrophysicsInstrumentation and Methods for AstrophysicsHigh Energy Physics - ExperimentNuclear Experiment
We have succeeded in developing hydrophobic silica aerogels over a wide range of densities (i.e. refractive indices). A pinhole drying method was invented to make possible producing highly transparent aerogels with entirely new region of refractive indices of 1.06-1.26. Obtained aerogels are more transparent than conventional ones, and the refractive index is well controlled in the pinhole drying process. A test beam experiment was carried out in order to evaluate the performance of the pinhole-dried aerogels as a Cherenkov radiator. A clear Cherenkov ring was successfully observed by a ring imaging Cherenkov counter. We also developed monolithic and hydrophobic aerogels with a density of 0.01 g/cm^3 (a low refractive index of 1.0026) as a cosmic dust capturer for the first time. Consequently, aerogels with any refractive indices between 1.0026 and 1.26 can be produced freely.
@article{arxiv.1112.5084,
title = {Development of transparent silica aerogel over a wide range of densities},
author = {Makoto Tabata and Ichiro Adachi and Yoshikazu Ishii and Hideyuki Kawai and Takayuki Sumiyoshi and Hiroshi Yokogawa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1112.5084},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Technology and Instrumentation in Particle Physics (TIPP 2009) in Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A, 3 pages, 6 figures