Our team of researchers is embedded in an environment with a strong data science capability. This means that not only are we able to use a variety of Monte Carlo simulation programmes, such as GEANT4, FLUKA and MCNP to simulate interactions of radiation with detector material; but we are also able to develop data pipelines for small and large volumes of data in order to develop tools to facilitate efficient processing of raw output of novel sensors. We have optical design experience using ZEMAX for designing and modelling both sequential and non-sequential optical systems.
We have expertise in simulating neutron radiation interaction with matter covering the range of energies from thermal neutrons up to LHC energies. The low energy neutron simulations are driven by our 3He alternative technology development programme, where the focus is on understanding the moderation of neutron fluxes and how that maps into an energy spectrum that we can use to plan measurement campaigns, and that we can use to determine the efficiencies of the devices we are testing.
Regarding higher energy simulations – these are part of ongoing efforts to understand the radiation environment at the Large Hadron Collider, where radiation damage as a function of time affects the operating requirements for radiation detectors and the activity of parts of detectors at a given predicted time in the LHC and High Luminosity LHC programme affect the ability for scientists to maintain that facility. We have expertise with a variety of simulation packages and this expertise is translatable to the nuclear and space industries, as well as sectors such as nuclear security.
Our experience in optical design has been used to understand radiation tolerance issues with star-trackers for NASA Jovian missions, tolerancing for deployable telescope optics for a cube-sat concept and in developing instrumentation for scintillating fibre test-benches in the context of the AIDA-2020 infrastructure project.