CosmicWatch: The Desktop Muon Detectors, exploring gamma-ray spectroscopy.

CosmicWatch is a self-contained, low-cost, and easy-to-build particle detector for students, scientists, and cosmic-ray enthusiasts. It uses a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) to collect light emitted by a plastic scintillator after a charged particle, like a cosmic-ray muon, deposits some of its energy in it. This project aims to further expand the capabilities of CosmicWatch by exploiting the already existing electronics and implementing the necessary features to transform the detector into a portable gamma-ray spectrometer. Using a Cerium doped Lutetium-based scintillation crystal (LYSO), we have achieved an energy resolution of 4.6%/sqrt(E[MeV]). The end goal is to characterize the full detector, with various calibrated gamma-ray sources and crystals, by measuring its energy resolution, linearity, deadtime, and the low-energy threshold.