A Low Mass Optical Grid for the PROSPECT Reactor Antineutrino Detector

Understand

PROSPECT, the Precision Reactor Oscillation and SPECTrum experiment, is a short-baseline reactor antineutrino experiment designed to provide precision measurements of the $^{235}$U product $\overline{\nu}_e$ spectrum of utilizing an optically segmented 4-ton liquid scintillator detector.

• PROSPECT's segmentation system, the optical grid, plays a central role in reconstructing the position and energy of $\overline{\nu}_e$ interactions in the detector.
• This paper is the technical reference for this PROSPECT subsystem, describing its design, fabrication, quality assurance, transportation and assembly in detail.
• In addition, the dimensional, optical and mechanical characterizations of optical grid components and the assembled PROSPECT target are also presented.