Quantum 2025 – scientific programme

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MON: Monday Contributed Sessions

MON 23: Poster Session: Fundamental Aspects and Model Systems

MON 23.4: Poster

Monday, September 8, 2025, 18:30–20:30, ZHG Foyer 1. OG

An educational setup for measuring photons and particles with modern detectors — Anja Bitar, Andrea Brogna, Fabian Piermaier, Steffen Schönfelder, Stefan Schoppmann, and •Quirin Weitzel — PRISMA Detektorlabor, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany

In quantum and particle physics, highly sensitive and complex detectors are used, which always reflect the latest technological standards. To introduce students to these, practical experiments for training purposes are required in addition to specialized lectures. In this work, we describe the construction of a small fully working particle detector for demonstration in educational context. It is based on a state of the art scintillator, read out with optical fibers attached to a Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM), and can be used to detect, for example, muons from cosmic rays. Furthermore, SiPMs are excellent photon counting sensors allowing to explore the quantum nature of light when exposed to repeated fast flashes on the nanosecond scale. An adjustable Light Emitting Diode (LED) pulser is used here for this purpose. Our setup can be constructed with relatively moderate effort, provided that in addition a 3D-printer and suitable readout electronics (at least an oscilloscope) are available.

Keywords: Hands-on educational setup; Photon counting; Particle detector; Silicon Photomultiplier; Scintillator