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Advanced muon-spin spectroscopy with high lateral resolution using Si-pixel detectors

Lukas Mandok1, Pascal Isenring2,3, Heiko Augustin1, Niklaus Berger4, Marius Köppel5, Jonas A. Krieger2, Hubertus Luetkens2, Thomas Prokscha2, Thomas Rudzki1 et al.

André Schöning1 and Zaher Salman2,*

  • 1Physics Institute, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 226, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
  • 2PSI Center for Neutron and Muon Sciences, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
  • 3Physik Institut, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland
  • 4Institute for Nuclear Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Johann-Joachim-Becher-Weg 45, 55099 Mainz, Germany
  • 5Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland

  • *Contact author: zaher.salman@psi.ch
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013092 – Published 28 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/f4jb-39yn

Abstract

Muon-spin spectroscopy at continuous sources has stagnated at a stopped muon rate of ∼40kHz for the last few decades. The major limiting factor is the requirement of a single muon in the sample during the typical 10µs data gate window. To overcome this limit and to be able to perform muon-spin relaxation/rotation (µSR) measurements on millimeter-sized samples, one can use vertex reconstruction methods to construct µSR spectra. This is now possible thanks to the availability of very thin monolithic Si-pixel chips, which offer minimal particle scattering and high count rate. Here, we present results from a Si-pixel-based spectrometer that utilizes vertex reconstruction schemes for the incoming muons and emitted positrons. With this spectrometer, we were able to obtain a first vertex reconstructed (vx-μSR) spectrum. The unique capabilities and benefits of such a vx-µSR spectrometer are discussed.

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References (23)

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013092– Published 28 January, 2026
  • Received 11 March 2025
  • Accepted 6 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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