Design and beam-test characterization of the CRILIN semi-homogeneous crystal calorimeter

Abstract

CRILIN is a high-granularity semi-homogeneous electromagnetic calorimeter based on longitudinally segmented PbF$_2$ crystal matrices read out by UV-extended silicon photomultipliers. The concept combines fast Cherenkov response, fine transverse granularity, longitudinal shower information, and radiation tolerance for future lepton-collider experiments. This paper reports the construction of a large-area prototype and its performance measured in beam tests at the CERN SPS. The detector comprises five $7\times7$ PbF$_2$ crystal matrices, has a depth of about $22X_0$, and is read out by four $3\times3~\mathrm{mm}^2$ SiPMs per crystal integrated in a single electronic channel. Electron data between 10 and 120~GeV and dedicated 150~GeV muon data were used to characterize the detector response. A time resolution below 50~ps is achieved for electron energies above 10~GeV, reaching values below 20~ps above 60~GeV. The energy resolution is described by a stochastic term of $(6.58\pm0.04)\%/\sqrt{E/\mathrm{GeV}}$ and a constant term of $(0.23\pm0.02)\%$, with an additional noise contribution fixed from pedestal data. The longitudinal segmentation enables event-by-event corrections based on the reconstructed shower development, resulting in a significant improvement of the energy resolution. A light yield of approximately 0.54~photoelectrons/MeV is measured consistently using both electron showers and minimum-ionizing particles. A Geant4-based simulation incorporating the relevant experimental effects reproduces the measured energy resolution. These results validate the CRILIN architecture as a compact, fast, and longitudinally segmented electromagnetic calorimeter for future collider experiments.