Links to reading assignments and lab writeups will be posted here as they are assigned, along with their corresponding due dates.
Reading Assignments
Opinion Warning: The whole "pay to view the results of publicly funded research" paradigm that for whatever insane reason is entrenched in modern scientific publication is a crime against humanity. That being said... I'm not trying to get sued by the likes of Elsevier et al., so I will be linking to all of the articles through the publisher portals.
Since you are Berkeley students, you should have access to (and the ability to download) all of the articles whenever you're on a Berkeley or LBL network. You can also get access to the articles when you're not physically on the Berkeley network by using the VPN services offered by the Berkeley library.
1. Knoll Chapters 11 and 12 and Appendix D | Due: Friday, 8/31/2018
Please review chapters 11 ("Semiconductor Diode Detectors") and 12 ("Germanium Gamma-Ray Detectors"), as well as Appendix D ("The Shockley-Ramo Theorem for Induced Charge") in Knoll. It is essential that you have a firm understanding of the basics of semiconductor detector operation as we begin taking data with the HPGe detectors in the lab. If you do not have a personal copy of Knoll, there are several available in 1110B that you may borrow for this assignment.
2. Shockley-Ramo | Due: Friday, 9/7/2018
The second reading assignment includes two papers: the original papers on charge induction from charge-carrier motion that comprise the Shockley-Ramo theorem.
- W. Shockley "Currents to Conductors Induced by a Moving Point Charge
- S. Ramo "Currents Induced by Election Motion"
3. V. Jordanov - Real-time DSP for Spectroscopy | Due: Friday, 9/14/2018
This paper describes the process of synthesizing pulse shapes for digital signals, with specific emphasis on and detailed description of a digital trapezoidal shaper.
4. Low-Noise Techniques in Detectors - Veljko Radeka | Due: Friday, 09-28-2018
This reading is a bit longer (~60 pages) and quite detailed, but offers an incredible summary of many of the topics we have been and will continue discussing for the next several weeks. I strongly recommend dedicating quite a bit of time to this reading, along with multiple discussions with your peers.
5. Fundamental Limits of Scintillation Detector Timing Precision - Derenzo, Choong, & Moses | Due: Friday, 10-12-2018
This paper presents a wholistic accounting of the various factors that affect timing precision in scintillation detectors. Professor Derenzo will be delivering a guest lecture on this topic on Thursday, 10/11/2018, so I recommend getting an early start on the paper this week.
6. Review of the Shockley-Ramo Theorem and its Application in Semiconductor Gamma-Ray Detectors | Due: Friday 10-19-2018
A nice review of SR from the perspective of signal formation in semiconductor detectors.
7. Gamma-Ray Imaging Overview | Due: Friday 11-09-2018
This ~70-page review paper covers many of the general aspects of gamma-ray imaging, including different imaging modalities and imaging applications.
8. Image Reconstruction: Maximum Likelihood from Incomplete Data via the EM Algorithm and List-Mode Likelihood: EM Algorithm and Image Quality Estimation Demonstrated on 2-D PET | Due Monday, 11-26-2018
These important articles introduce the concepts of iterative image reconstruction techniques based on the maximum likelihood formulation. The first paper from Dempster introduces the expectation maximization algorithm, while the Barret & Parra paper covers list-mode ML-EM based on Poisson statistics. Since the papers are quite dense and we have the holiday coming up, I have made the discussion "due" on the Monday following the Thanksgiving break: this gives you the opportunity to read the papers over the long break and to perhaps come back and hold your discussion after the department colloquium on Monday 11-26.