Instrumentation service


The instrumentation department gathers the simulation, engineering and technical skills, which are needed to design, setup, develop, integrate, validate and calibrate an innovative R&D experiment or a complex instrument dedicated to Astroparticles and Cosmology physics research.

A total of 14 members ( 9Research Engineers, 3 Study Engineers, 1 Technician, 1 Engineer Apprentice) compose the team, covering various areas of expertise: physics, optics, photodetection, cryogenics, integration & tests, system engineering and project management.

In the 128 square meter ISO8 cleanroom of the APC laboratory, the optical engineers of the team integrate and characterize the performances of the benches they designed (with optical design & illumination simulation software tools), in preparation for the delivery of telescopes or in order to improve homodyne and heterodyne interferometric metrology techniques dedicated to gravitational waves detectors (read LISA & Virgo webpages). They also support pioneering R&Ds dedicated to Laguerre-Gauss modes productions and to vacuum squeezing techniques aimed at contributing to the future generation of interferometers. 
The team members involved in the field of photodetection handle the definition, the design, the development, the integration and the calibration of X/Gamma spectrometers (with calibrated light sources or with radioactive sources) and of neutrino & UHECR telescope focal surfaces. Additionally, dedicated R&Ds are developed by these engineers in strong collaboration with the main suppliers of the sector to increase the performances of the multi-anode photomultipliers.
The cryogenic engineers of the team do design, develop and integrate cryogenic refrigeration systems, in particular for cosmological detectors and for particle accelerators. They lead R&Ds for the development of thermoacoustic machines, cryomodules and sub-Kelvin adsorption refrigeration systems dedicated to next generations’ instruments.

All along the life of the projects, the system engineers and the project managers of the instrumentation department, in charge of subsystems or responsible for global projects of national or international collaborations, lead and coordinate the key project meetings and reviews. Furthermore, they set work frames and produce the significant documentation used to define the processes and methodologies that the project teams follow to build and to achieve the deliverables.

List of members  - Department manager: Guillaume Prévôt
 
Our main projects in these different fields are: