A Micromegas-based telescope for muon tomography: The WatTo experiment

S. Bouteille (1) , D. Attié (1) , P. Baron (1) , D. Calvet (2) , P. Magnier (1) , I. Mandjavidze (3) , S. Procureur (1) , M. Riallot (1) , M. Winkler (1)

1 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
2 LPC - Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire - Clermont-Ferrand
3 DEDIP - Département d'Electronique, des Détecteurs et d'Informatique pour la Physique (ex SEDI)

This paper reports about the first Micromegas-based telescope built for applications in muon tomo-graphy. The telescope consists of four, 50 Â 50 cm 2 resistive multiplexed Micromegas with a 2D layout and a self-triggering electronics based on the Dream chip. Thanks to the multiplexing, the four detectors were readout with a single Front-End Unit. The high voltages were provided by a dedicated card using low consumption CAEN miniaturized modules. A nano-PC (Hummingboard) ensured the HV control and monitoring coupled with a temperature feedback as well as the data acquisition and storage. The overall consumption of the instrument yielded 30 W only, i.e. the equivalent of a standard bulb. The telescope was operated outside during 3.5 months to image the water tower of the CEA-Saclay research center, including a 1.5-month campaign with solar panels. The development of autonomous, low consumption muon telescopes with unprecedented accuracy opens new applications in imaging as well as in the field of muon metrology.

Mots clés: Muography; Muon Tomography; Volcanology; Genetic multiplexing; Micro Pattern Gaseous Detectors; MPGD; Micromegas

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

S. Bouteille, D. Attié, P. Baron, D. Calvet, P. Magnier, et al.. A Micromegas-based telescope for muon tomography: The WatTo experiment. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2016, 834, pp.223 - 228. ⟨10.1016/j.nima.2016.08.002⟩. ⟨hal-01467614⟩