May 2023
Detectors from the 3D printer
“(Almost) any shape I can think up, I can also print - because the big advantage of 3D printing is the many geometric liberties. We can also process several raw materials at the same time and print prototypes and small quantities cost-efficiently. That's why our goal is to establish 3D printing as a new process for manufacturing detectors. In the PRISMA+ detector laboratory, I mainly work with scintillators and waveguides.
Producing such scintillators is not easy - for example, they have to be optically transparent and must not age too quickly. To do this, we add certain additives to plastic granules as a starting product and keep changing the printing parameters. It's the teamwork that defines my research: we work together on a process and take a very analytical and systematic approach, rather than following the motto “trial and error”. We characterize both the starting materials and the printed product using a wide range of analytical methods. The development of scintillators is a key focus in Mainz and 3D printing as a processing method is attracting a lot of interest, although we are still in the early stages.
©: Angelika Stehle
In fall 2021, I started my physics studies in Mainz as a professionally qualified student. Before that, I completed an apprenticeship as a plastics technologist in Switzerland. I came into contact with the Mu3e experiment, which Niklaus Berger is also researching in Mainz. He drew my attention to the exciting opportunities in the detector laboratory and since then I have been involved in current research projects there as a student assistant.
What's more, I can optimally combine all my physics interests here - detectors, scintillators, 3D printing - and also benefit directly from my apprenticeship. For me, this closes the circle.”
Anja Bitar is studying physics in her third semester. Her career is unusual in many respects: she started her studies as a professionally qualified student and has been researching in the PRISMA+ detector laboratory as a student assistant since her first semester. Her focus: waveguides and scintillators from the 3D printer.