title: Aerogel Cherenkov detector for characterizing the intense flash x-ray source, Cygnus, spectrum.
abstract: An aerogel Cherenkov detector is proposed to measure the X-ray energy spectrum from the Cygnus-intense flash X-ray source operated at the Nevada National Security Site. An array of aerogels set at a variety of thresholds between 1 and 3 MeV will be adequate to map out the bremsstrahlung X-ray production of the Cygnus, where the maximum energy of the spectrum is normally around 2.5 MeV. In addition to the Cherenkov radiation from aerogels, one possible competing light-production mechanism is optical transition radiation (OTR), which may be significant in aerogels due to the large number of transitions from SiO2clusters to vacuum voids. To examine whether OTR is a problem, four aerogel samples were tested using a mono-energetic electron beam (varied in the range of 1-3 MeV) at NSTec Los Alamos Operations. It was demonstrated that aerogels can be used as a Cherenkov medium, where the rate of the light production is about two orders magnitude higher when the electron beam energy is above threshold.
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: McEvoy
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.affiliation: National Security Technologies, LLC, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544, USA.
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Schwellenbach
authors.affiliation: National Security Technologies, LLC, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544, USA.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Malone
authors.affiliation: National Security Technologies, LLC, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544, USA.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.affiliation: National Security Technologies, LLC, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544, USA.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Smith