In a major advance for antimatter research, scientists from CERN's AEgIS collaboration have engineered a groundbreaking imaging system by adapting the image sensors found in mobile phone cameras. The innovation aims to provide unprecedented spatial resolution in tracking the annihilation of antihydrogen particles, a vital step toward precisely measuring how antimatter responds to Earth's gravity by Robert Schreiber
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Apr 03, 2025
In a major advance for antimatter research, scientists from CERN's AEgIS collaboration have engineered a groundbreaking imaging system by adapting the image sensors found in mobile phone cameras. The innovation aims to provide unprecedented spatial resolution in tracking the annihilation of antihydrogen particles, a vital step toward precisely measuring how antimatter responds to Earth's gravity.
The AEgIS project, along with parallel efforts by ALPHA and GBAR at CERN's Antimatter Factory, seeks to determine the gravitational behavior of antihydrogen atoms. AEgIS's unique technique involves directing a horizontal stream of antihydrogen through a moire deflectometer to detect vertical displacements, enabling scientists to infer gravitational effects. For this to work effectively, detectors must identify annihilation points with extreme spatial accuracy.
"For AEgIS to work, we need a detector with incredibly high spatial resolution, and mobile camera sensors have pixels smaller than 1 micrometer," said Francesco Guatieri of TUM's FRM II research neutron source and Principal Investigator of the study. "We have integrated 60 of them in the single photographic detector, the Optical Photon and Antimatter Imager (OPHANIM), with the highest number of pixels currently operational: 3840 MPixels. Previously, photographic plates were the only option, but they lacked real-time capabilities. Our solution, demonstrated for antiprotons and directly applicable to antihydrogen, combines photographic-plate-level resolution, real-time diagnostics, self-calibration and a good particle collection surface, all in one device."
The team repurposed commercial smartphone sensors by removing their initial layers, which are typically designed for advanced phone electronics. This intricate micro-engineering task enabled the sensors to register low-energy positrons and other particles. Master's students Michael Berghold and Markus Munster from the TUM School of Engineering and Design were instrumental in the conversion process.
"This is a game-changing technology for the observation of the tiny shifts due to gravity in an antihydrogen beam travelling horizontally, and it can also find broader applications in experiments where high position resolution is crucial, or to develop high-resolution trackers," stated AEgIS spokesperson Dr. Ruggero Caravita. "This extraordinary resolution enables us also to distinguish between different annihilation fragments, paving the way for new research on low-energy antiparticle annihilation in materials," concluded Caravita.
Research Report:Real-time antiproton annihilation vertexing with sub-micron resolution
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