Development of aerogel Cherenkov detectors at Novosibirsk

The development of aerogel Cherenkov counters with the light collection using a wavelength shifter is described. 80 counters of this type are working in the KEDR detector. A project of similar counters for the SND detector based on ‘‘heavy’’ aerogel with n ¼ 1:13 has been developed. Aerogel with a refractive index of 1.006–1.13 and dimensions of blocks up to 200 � 200 � 50 mm 3 is produced by the Novosibirsk group for use in Cherenkov counters of different types. The Novosibirsk group is participating in the development of LHCb RICH as well as a beam diagnostics for a photo-injector test facility at DESY–Zeuthen. Recently we started development of RICH based on focusing aerogel (FARICH) for the endcap of the SuperBaBar. For the first time in the world the focusing aerogel with layers of different refractive indices has been produced. r 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 29.40.Ka