[en] This paper presents several RF-to-DC converter topologies and compares their performances based on measurements made on fabricated prototypes. A medium range wireless low power transmission experiment is presented. A low power DC-DC boost converter designed rectenna-generated energy conditioning is also discussed. (author)

[en] High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors are used for high-resolution x- and gamma-ray spectroscopy. For their operation, the necessary cryogenic cooling is performed with liquid nitrogen or with electromechanical coolers. Although mature and industrialized solutions, most of HPGe detectors integrating electrical coolers present a limited spectroscopic performance due to the generated mechanical vibration and electromagnetic interference. This paper describes a novel HPGe detector, specifically designed to address the challenges of ultimate x-ray spectroscopy and imaging applications. Due to the stringent demands associated with nano-scale imaging in synchrotron applications, a custom-designed cryostat was built around a Canberra CP5-Plus electrical cooler featuring extremely low vibration levels and high cooling power. The heat generated by the cryo-cooler itself, as well as the electronics, is evacuated via an original liquid cooling circuit. This architecture can also be used to address high ambient temperature, which does not allow conventional cryo-coolers to work properly. The multichannel detector head can consist of a segmented monolithic HPGe sensor, or several closely packed sensors. Each sensor channel is read out by state-of-the-art pulse-reset preamplifiers in order to achieve excellent energy resolution for count rates in excess of 1 Mcps. The sensitive electronics are located in EMI-proof housings to avoid any interference from other devices on a beam-line. The front-end of the detector is built using selected high-purity materials and alloys to avoid any fluorescence effects. We present a detailed description of the detector design and we report on its performance. A discussion is also given on the use of electrically cooled HPGe detectors for applications requiring ultimate energy resolution, such as synchrotron, medicine or nuclear industry. (authors)

[en] In situ measurement is a privileged way of monitoring radioactive contamination compared to analyzing samples in a distant, specialized laboratory. Scintillators based spectrometers offer small footprints and are easy to easy to use, however they do not provide an accurate nuclide identification capability and activities measurement because notably of their limited energy resolution, for instance when low minimum detectable activity (MDA) are required, or in complex mixture of sources. On the other hand, High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors provide unmatched nuclide identification capability with the lowest MDA but they are not always of practical use on the field because the crystal needs to be cooled down to liquid nitrogen temperature, increasing the overall weight, bulkiness and complexity of the measurement. This paper presents the configuration and performance of a novel turnkey and compact HPGe solution developed by Canberra for radionuclide identification under harsh environments. Radio-contaminations surveys now can be undertaken outdoor under various weather conditions, in contaminated areas, underground or underwater locations (including under sea water), with fast on site deployment. The spectrometer is also designed in a small diameter tubular shape to offer minimal footprint for an operation in narrow and confined spaces. Besides, this innovative design does not mitigate the performances nor the reliability experienced with standard laboratory-grade HPGe spectrometers. This achievement relies on advanced technologies such as the encapsulation of the crystal in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) which provides higher robustness and does not requires thermal cycles faced with regular HPGe equipment. It also relies on a low vibration, low consumption electrical cooler so that no liquid nitrogen is being used. The detector is connected to a state-of-the-art digital spectroscopy suite embedded in an autonomous acquisition station monitoring the cryo-cooler and including the spectroscopy software. This system presented is therefore a new solution to perform high resolution spectroscopy where no current products are compact or robust enough to be installed, for instance for soil and water decontamination measurement when anthropogenic radioactive sources must be identified from natural ones or when low contamination levels are expected, the MDA being 3 to 5 times higher than scintillator-based detectors of similar sizes. Environmental inspection such as well logging for geophysics and mining, water contamination monitoring, or decommissioning works can thus benefits from both ruggedness, mobility without compromise on the nuclide identification or activity measurement capability. (authors)

[en] Intense fluxes of reactor antineutrinos offer a unique possibility to probe the fully coherent character of elastic neutrino scattering off atomic nuclei. In this regard, detectors face the challenge to register tiny recoil energies of a few keV at the maximum. The Conus experiment was installed in 17.1 m distance from the reactor core of the nuclear power plant in Brokdorf, Germany, and was designed to detect this neutrino interaction channel by using four 1 kg-sized point contact germanium detectors with sub-keV energy thresholds. This report describes the unique specifications addressed to the design, the research and development, and the final production of these detectors. It demonstrates their excellent electronic performance obtained during commissioning under laboratory conditions as well as during the first 2 years of operation at the reactor site which started on April 1, 2018. It highlights the long-term stability of different detector parameters and the achieved background levels of the germanium detectors inside the Conus shield setup.

[en] We report on a Hubble Space Telescope search for rest-frame ultraviolet emission from the host galaxies of five far-infrared-luminous z ≃ 6 quasars and the z = 5.85 hot-dust-free quasar SDSS J0005–0006. We perform 2D surface brightness modeling for each quasar using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo estimator, to simultaneously fit and subtract the quasar point source in order to constrain the underlying host galaxy emission. We measure upper limits for the quasar host galaxies of m _J > 22.7 mag and m _H > 22.4 mag, corresponding to stellar masses of M _* < 2 × 10¹¹ M _⊙. These stellar mass limits are consistent with the local M _BH − M _* relation. Our flux limits are consistent with those predicted for the UV stellar populations of z ≃ 6 host galaxies, but likely in the presence of significant dust ($⟨<!--\; ???\; -->A_{\mathrm{U}\mathrm{V}}⟩<!--\; ???\; -->\simeq <!--\; ???\; -->2.6$ mag). We also detect a total of up to nine potential z ≃ 6 quasar companion galaxies surrounding five of the six quasars, separated from the quasars by 1.″4–3.″2, or 8.4–19.4 kpc, which may be interacting with the quasar hosts. These nearby companion galaxies have UV absolute magnitudes of −22.1 to −19.9 mag and UV spectral slopes β of −2.0 to −0.2, consistent with luminous star-forming galaxies at z ≃ 6. These results suggest that the quasars are in dense environments typical of luminous z ≃ 6 galaxies. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that some of these companions are foreground interlopers. Infrared observations with the James Webb Space Telescope will be needed to detect the z ≃ 6 quasar host galaxies and better constrain their stellar mass and dust content.