The Muon station for sciEnce technoLOgy and inDustrY (MELODY) muon source is being built at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS). There is an ongoing collaboration between staff at ISIS and CSNS, and two recent publications highlight their work on detector technologies for MELODY.

The first instrument at MELODY will use plastic scintillator detectors with large dynamic range photomultiplier tubes. The first of the two recent publications describes the validation of these detectors by comparing their outputs during exposure to both background cosmic ray radiation and positrons from pulsed surface muon beams on the Chronus beamline at ISIS. Their results confirm that the detectors were able to successfully distinguish the muon decay signals from the background.

Building on this, the team created a module from 24 of these detectors and tested it on Chronus under different magnetic fields. They confirmed its functionality, and their tests provided important insights for the design and construction of the detector system for the first µSR spectrometer at MELODY.

The collaboration between the two facilities enables the teams to exchange the expertise gained from relevant local knowledge, bringing benefits to both facilities. While ISIS have been helping with the detector development and testing for MELODY, the CSNS team have expertise in low energy muon experiments, which is an area of interest for our staff as they look to the future of muon instrumentation at ISIS. 

Further information:

DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2025.170871

DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2025.170918