Dr. A.F. Zerrouk reports

CERN'S COMPACT MUON SOLENOID GROUP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIAA ORDERS ZECOTEK'S THIN LFS CRYSTAL PLATES

CERN's (European Organization for Nuclear Research) associated scientific team, working on the compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiment at the University of Virginia, has ordered Zecotek Photonics Inc.'s thin LFS (lutetium fine silicate) crystal plates, manufactured specifically for its shashlik-designed calorimeter. The LFS crystal plates supplied by Zecotek have a nominal thickness of 1.5 millimetres.

"We are pleased that Zecotek has been able to supply thin LFS crystal plates for our shashlik-design calorimeter," said Prof. Brad Cox, leader of the University of Virginia and CERN's compact muon solenoid experiment. "We have found their LFS crystals to have the energy resolution and radiation hardness required for our CMS experiments. By using thin LFS crystal plates, we plan to reduce the technical and costs risks associated with measurement in such experiments. The aim is to provide data for ongoing design evaluations to service the very high energies."

"Our thin LFS plates continue to have the unmatched cost and performance advantages that are being demanded by CERN's higher-energy experiments," said Dr. A.F. Zerrouk, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Zecotek Photonics Inc. "The present LFS crystal order follows a series of orders for ongoing tests to identify an optimum design solution for the main part of the CERN experiment. We look forward to working closely with the CERN team at the University of Virginia who are leading the LFS-plates-based design configuration for the major CMS experiment."

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a large experiment, based in Geneva, Switzerland, with many participating laboratories from around the world contributing and having a significant impact to the overall experiment. The CMS group at the University of Virginia has been very active with the search for new particles produced by the LHC. Among other activities, the scientific team at the University of Virginia has participated in the preparation, installation, commissioning and operation of the electromagnetic detector of the CMS experiment, which is the most important subdetector used in the search of the Higgs boson. The team also has taken an active role on analysis review of the huge amount of data produced.

The CMS experiment is one of two large general-purpose particle physics detectors built on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It is composed of three main components: scintillation material, photo detectors and the ubiquitous electronic system. Zecotek's LFS plates were originally tested for use in CERN's high-energy experiments because of their density of material, stopping power, fast decay time, very good energy resolution, unique radiation hardness and competitive effective price.

In March, 2013, CERN scientists confirmed that a new subatomic particle discovered at the world's most powerful particle accelerator is the Higgs boson. As CERN pushes into this new frontier of science, additional experiments are required to determine the particle's properties and its true form. High-energy scintillation crystals with high radiation hardness and solid-state photo detectors are paramount for the success of the next stage of experiments. The superhigh-energy experiments are planned to be up and running within the next three to four years.

About the CMS experiment at CERN

CMS is one of two general-purpose experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider that have been built to search for new physics. CMS is designed to detect a wide range of particles and phenomena produced in the LHC's high-energy proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions. At CMS, scientists are looking into the unknown and trying to answer the most fundamental questions about our universe, for example: What is the universe really made of, and what forces act within it? What gives everything substance? CMS also measures the properties of known particles with unprecedented precision and is on the lookout for completely new, unpredicted phenomena. Such research not only increases understanding but may eventually spark new technologies that could change the world. The CMS experiment is one of the largest international scientific collaborations in history, involving 4,300 particle physicists, engineers, technicians, students and support staff from 179 universities and institutes in 41 countries. For more information about CMS, please visit CERN's website.

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