papers

Publications (28)

astro-ph.IM2024

Sixteen Multiple-Amplifier Sensing Charge-Coupled Devices and Characterization Techniques Targeting the Next Generation of Astronomical Instruments

Agustin J. Lapi, Blas J. Irigoyen Gimenez, Miqueas E. Gamero +8

We present a candidate sensor for future spectroscopic applications, such as a Stage-5 Spectroscopic Survey Experiment or the Habitable Worlds Observatory. This type of charge-coup…

astro-ph.IM2026

X-ray characterization of fully-depleted p-channel Skipper-CCDs for the DarkNESS mission

Phoenix Alpine, Ana M. Botti, Brenda A. Cervantes-Vergara +11

The Dark matter Nanosatellite Equipped with Skipper Sensors (DarkNESS) mission is a 6U CubeSat designed to search for X-ray lines from decaying dark matter using Skipper-CCDs. Thic…

astro-ph.IM2024

Skipper-in-CMOS: Non-Destructive Readout with Sub-Electron Noise Performance for Pixel Detectors

Agustin J. Lapi, Miguel Sofo-Haro, Benjamin C. Parpillon +15

The Skipper-in-CMOS image sensor integrates the non-destructive readout capability of Skipper Charge Coupled Devices (Skipper-CCDs) with the high conversion gain of a pinned photod…

physics.ins-det2026

MAS-CCD: New technique for measuring low-level charge content based on the multiple amplifier architecture

Miqueas E. Gamero, Guillermo Fernández Moroni, Fernando Chierchie +4

Low-noise detectors are a key technology for the next generation of astronomical instruments aimed at spectroscopy of faint objects and the search for exoplanets. In this context,…

physics.ins-det2025

Towards a quantum realization of the ampere using single-electron resolution Skipper-CCDs

Miqueas Gamero, Agustin Lapi, Blas Irigoyen Gimenez +7

This paper presents a proof-of-concept demonstration of the Skipper-CCD, a sensor with single-electron counting capability, as a promising technology for implementing an electron-p…

hep-ex2024

Search for reactor-produced millicharged particles with Skipper-CCDs at the CONNIE and Atucha-II experiments

Alexis A. Aguilar-Arevalo, Nicolas Avalos, Pablo Bellino +37

Millicharged particles, proposed by various extensions of the standard model, can be created in pairs by high-energy photons within nuclear reactors and can interact electromagneti…

astro-ph.IM2024

Astronomical Spectroscopy with Skipper CCDs: First Results from a Skipper CCD Focal Plane Prototype at SIFS

Edgar Marrufo Villalpando, Alex Drlica-Wagner, Brandon Roach +22

We present the first on-sky results from an ultra-low-readout-noise Skipper CCD focal plane prototype for the SOAR Integral Field Spectrograph (SIFS). The Skipper CCD focal plane c…

hep-ex2026

Searches for CEνNS and Physics beyond the Standard Model using Skipper-CCDs at CONNIE

Alexis A. Aguilar-Arevalo, Nicolas Avalos, Xavier Bertou +31

The Coherent Neutrino-Nucleus Interaction Experiment (CONNIE) aims to detect the coherent scattering (CENS) of reactor antineutrinos off silicon nuclei using thick fully-deplet…

astro-ph.IM2025

Measurement of Photons Emitted by High-Energy Charged Particles as Background in Single-Photon Resolving Image Sensors

Guillermo Fernandez Moroni, Fernando Chierchie, Lucas Giardino +2

This work introduces an advanced technique optimized for detecting photons generated by charged particles, leveraging Skipper-CCD sensors. By analyzing background sources and detec…

hep-ex2023

Searching for millicharged particles with 1 kg of Skipper-CCDs using the NuMI beam at Fermilab

Santiago Perez, Dario Rodrigues, Juan Estrada +57

Oscura is a planned light-dark matter search experiment using Skipper-CCDs with a total active mass of 10 kg. As part of the detector development, the collaboration plans to build…

hep-ex2021

The Skipper CCD for low-energy threshold particle experiments above ground

Guillermo Fernandez Moroni, Fernando Chierchie, Javier Tiffenberg +11

We present experimental results using a single-electron resolution Skipper-CCD running above ground level to demonstrate the potential of this technology for its use in reactor neu…

astro-ph.IM2024

DarkNESS: developing a skipper-CCD instrument to search for Dark Matter from Low Earth Orbit

Phoenix Alpine, Samriddhi Bhatia, Fernando Chierchie +8

The DarkNESS (Dark Matter Nano-satellite Equipped with Skipper Sensors) mission aims to deploy a skipper-CCD CubeSat Observatory to search for dark matter (DM) from Low Earth Orbit…

physics.ins-det2022

SENSEI: Characterization of Single-Electron Events Using a Skipper-CCD

Liron Barak, Itay M. Bloch, Ana Botti +22

We use a science-grade Skipper Charge Coupled Device (Skipper-CCD) operating in a low-radiation background environment to develop a semi-empirical model that characterizes the orig…

physics.ins-det2020

Smart-readout of the Skipper-CCD: Achieving Sub-electron Noise Levels in Regions of Interest

Fernando Chierchie, Guillermo Fernandez Moroni, Leandro Stefanazzi +7

The skipper CCD is a special type of charge coupled device in which the readout noise can be reduced to sub-electron levels by averaging independent measurements of the same charge…

astro-ph.IM2020

Low Threshold Acquisition controller for Skipper CCDs

Gustavo Cancelo, Claudio Chavez, Fernando Chierchie +10

The development of the Skipper Charge Coupled Devices (Skipper-CCDs) has been a major technological breakthrough for sensing very weak ionizing particles. The sensor allows to reac…

physics.ins-det2025

Characterization of proton-induced damage in thick, p-channel skipper-CCDs

Brenda A. Cervantes-Vergara, Santiago E. Perez, Claudio R. Chavez +4

In this work, we characterize the radiation-induced damage in two thick, p-channel skipper-CCDs irradiated unbiased and at room temperature with 217-MeV protons. We evaluate the ov…

astro-ph.CO2020

SENSEI: Direct-Detection Results on sub-GeV Dark Matter from a New Skipper-CCD

Liron Barak, Itay M. Bloch, Mariano Cababie +20

We present the first direct-detection search for eV-to-GeV dark matter using a new ~2-gram high-resistivity Skipper-CCD from a dedicated fabrication batch that was optimized for da…

physics.ins-det2026

Characterization of Spurious Charge in SENSEI Skipper-CCDs

Yikai Wu, Ansh Desai, Sho Uemura +16

Skipper Charge-Coupled Devices (Skipper-CCDs) are a leading technology in the search for sub-GeV dark matter and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. A key background for…

astro-ph.IM2025

Multiple-Amplifier Sensing Charged-Coupled Device: Model and improvement of the Node Removal Efficiency

Blas J. Irigoyen Gimenez, Miqueas E. Gamero, Claudio R. Chavez Blanco +6

The Multiple Amplifier Sensing Charge-Coupled Device (MAS-CCD) has emerged as a promising technology for astronomical observation, quantum imaging, and low-energy particle detectio…

physics.ins-det2024

Skipper-CCD Sensors for the Oscura Experiment: Requirements and Preliminary Tests

Brenda A. Cervantes-Vergara, Santiago Perez, Juan Estrada +52

Oscura is a proposed multi-kg skipper-CCD experiment designed for a dark matter (DM) direct detection search that will reach unprecedented sensitivity to sub-GeV DM-electron intera…

astro-ph.IM2022

The Oscura Experiment

Alexis Aguilar-Arevalo, Fabricio Alcalde Bessia, Nicolas Avalos +41

The Oscura experiment will lead the search for low-mass dark matter particles using a very large array of novel silicon Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) with a threshold of two electr…

astro-ph.IM2025

Characterization of the Cherenkov Photon Background for Low-Noise Silicon Detectors in Space

Manuel E. Gaido, Javier Tiffenberg, Alex Drlica-Wagner +7

Future space observatories that seek to perform imaging and spectroscopy of faint astronomical sources will require ultra-low-noise detectors that are sensitive over a broad wavele…

astro-ph.CO2025

The Spectroscopic Stage-5 Experiment

Robert Besuner, Arjun Dey, Alex Drlica-Wagner +106

The existence, properties, and dynamics of the dark sectors of our universe pose fundamental challenges to our current model of physics, and large-scale astronomical surveys may be…

astro-ph.IM2023

Fast Single-Quantum Measurement with a Multi-Amplifier Sensing Charge-Coupled Device

Ana M. Botti, Brenda A. Cervantes-Vergara, Claudio R. Chavez +11

A novel readout architecture that uses multiple non-destructive floating-gate amplifiers to achieve sub-electron readout noise in a thick, fully-depleted silicon detector is presen…

astro-ph.IM2025

DarkNESS: A skipper-CCD NanoSatellite for Dark Matter Searches

Phoenix Alpine, Samriddhi Bhatia, Ana M. Botti +16

The Dark matter Nanosatellite Equipped with Skipper Sensors (DarkNESS) deploys a recently developed skipper-CCD architecture with sub-electron readout noise in low Earth orbit (LEO…

physics.ins-det2021

Analog pile-up circuit technique using a single capacitor for the readout of Skipper-CCD detectors

Miguel Sofo Haro, Claudio Chavez, Jose Lipovetzky +8

With Skipper-CCD detectors it is possible to take multiple samples of the charge packet collected on each pixel. After averaging the samples, the noise can be extremely reduced all…

astro-ph.IM2025

Readout Optimization of Multi-Amplifier Sensing Charge-Coupled Devices for Single-Quantum Measurement

Ana M. Botti, Brenda A. Cervantes-Vergara, Claudio R. Chavez +15

The non-destructive readout capability of the Skipper Charge Coupled Device (CCD) has been demonstrated to reduce the noise limitation of conventional silicon devices to levels tha…

astro-ph.IM2021

Smart readout of nondestructive image sensors with single-photon sensitivity

Fernando Chierchie, Guillermo Fernandez Moroni, Leandro Stefanazzi +5

Image sensors with nondestructive charge readout provide single-photon or single-electron sensitivity, but at the cost of long readout times. We present a smart readout technique t…