High radiation characterization for ultra-pure fused silica materials

The ATLAS experiment upgrades for the upcoming High-Luminosity (HL) Large Hadron Collider (LHC) include the upgrade of several detector sub-systems. Among these detectors is the zero-degree calorimeter (ZDC), which plays a key role in understanding heavy ion collisions. A comprehensive understanding of how detector materials behave in the high radiation environment of the LHC tunnels is fundamental to the HL-ZDC upgrade. In this work, we perform transmission measurements of eight different fused silica fiber candidates for the instrumentation of the Reaction Plane Detector (RPD) section of the HL-ZDC. The fibers were irradiated at the LHC, and the dose accumulated on each sample was determined using detailed FLUKA simulations provided by the CERN FLUKA team. The analysis of samples irradiated at different locations provides the possibility for an unprecedented characterization of the radiation hardness of detector materials, correlating dose, transmittance, wavelength, and different material composition. The results of this analysis will inform the upgrade and design of not only the HL-ZDC but also other detectors at current and future accelerators at CERN and Brookhaven National Laboratory.