ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter 2m prototype

This module was built and tested with beam to validate the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter design. One original design feature is the folding. 10 000 lead plates and electrodes are folded into an accordion shape and immersed in liquid argon. As they cross the folds, particles are slowed down by the lead. As they collide with the lead atoms, electrons and photons are ejected. There is a knock-on effect and as they continue on into the argon, a whole shower is produced. The electrodes collect up all the electrons and this signal gives a measurement of the energy of the initial particle. This 2 m long module dates back to the first detector studies for the LHC in the 1990’s. It was built by the R&D collaboration RD-3 to evaluate the performances of liquid argon calorimetry for the physics programme - the search for the Higgs boson decays into two photons, in particular. After the choice of that technology by the ATLAS collaboration, the design of its elements were reassessed in view of production and a new module was tested in the CERN beam lines, leading to the Technical Design Report in 1996.