The Q-weak experiment aims to measure the weak charge of proton with a precision of 4.2%. The proposed precision on weak charge required a 2.5% measurement of the parity violating asymmetry in elastic electron - proton scattering. Polarimetry was the largest experimental contribution to this uncertainty and a new Compton polarimeter was installed in Hall C at Jefferson Lab to make the goal achievable. In this polarimeter the electron beam collides with green laser light in a low gain Fabry- Perot Cavity; the scattered electrons are detected in 4 planes of a novel diamond micro strip detector while the back scattered photons are detected in lead tungstate crystals. This diamond micro-strip detector is the first such device to be used as a tracking detector in a nuclear and particle physics experiment. The diamond detectors are read out using custom built electronic modules that include a preamplifier, a pulse shaping amplifier and a discriminator for each detector micro-strip. We use field programmable gate array based general purpose logic modules for event selection and histogramming. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations and data acquisition simulations were performed to estimate the systematic uncertainties. Additionally, the Moller and Compton polarimeters were cross calibrated at low electron beam currents using a series of interleaved measurements. In this dissertation, we describe all the subsystems of the Compton polarimeter with emphasis on the electron detector. We focus on the FPGA based data acquisition system built by the author and the data analysis methods implemented by the author. The simulations of the data acquisition and the polarimeter that helped rigorously establish the systematic uncertainties of the polarimeter are also elaborated, resulting in the first sub 1% measurement of low energy ( 1 GeV) electron beam polarization with a Compton electron detector. We have demonstrated that diamond based micro-strip detectors can be used for tracking in a high radiation environment and it has enabled us to achieve the desired precision in the measurement of the electron beam polarization which in turn has allowed the most precise determination of the weak charge of the proton.

Sous réserve d’une énergie cinétique suffisamment faible, un neutron libre peut être piégé matériellement ou magnétiquement de sorte à garantir son confinement au sein d’un volume défini. Cette caractéristique permet l’étude de plusieurs paramètres, notamment de son temps de vie moyen. L’expérience HOPE, piège magnétique de neutrons ultra-froids mis en œuvre à l’Institut Laue Langevin à Grenoble, vise à fournir une valeur précise de ce temps de vie au travers de différentes méthodes. L’une d’entre elles consiste à observer les électrons émis par la décroissance bêta du neutron. Le détecteur SECOND a été spécifiquement conçu pour permettre le comptage de ces électrons au sein de l’expérience HOPE. La grande difficulté de ce projet réside dans le faible taux de comptage des électrons attendu, qui nécessite la discrimination des rayonnements parasites. Dans ce but, SECOND est constitué de deux étages de détection, dont le principal, un phoswich de scintillateurs plastiques, a donné des résultats probants lors de premiers tests fonctionnels à basse température ; la différenciation des événements induits par des muons cosmiques est efficace dans 98 % des cas, et tout porte à croire qu’elle sera considérablement améliorée par l’utilisation d’un système d’acquisition adapté à l’application souhaitée. / Considering a low enough kinetic energy, a free neutron can be materially or magnetically trapped in a defined volume. This trapping allows experimenters to study the neutron and its characteristics, and in this case, to measure its mean lifetime. The HOPE experiment commissioned at Laue Langevin Institute in Grenoble is aimed at providing a 1 %- accuracy value. One way to measure lifetime is to record every single neutron beta decay occurring in the trap by counting the emitted electrons. The detector SECOND has been specifically designed to fulfill this goal within HOPE but also to discriminate other types of particles that induce false events. The latter argument is the reason for the two detection stages SECOND is composed of. The plastic scintillators phoswich constitutes the main part of the detector and has been successfully operated during preliminary tests at low temperature. The rejection rate of cosmic muons events is about 98 %, and this value can be drastically enhanced using a more suitable data acquisition system.

The thesis deals with the scintillation secondary electron detector for environmental scanning electron microscope, its design and construction. The starting point was numerical simulation of electrostatic fields and electron trajectories in the electrode system of the detector and simulation of pressure distribution and flow of gases in different parts of the detector. On the basis of modeling and simulation, construction changes of the detector were gradually implemented. Detection efficiency of each version of the detector was determined by the method described in the work. This method enables to evaluate signal level from the captured images of the specimen, quality of images was stated from signal to noise ratio. The thesis describes the whole process of the detector improvement from initial state, when the detector operated with lower efficiency in the pressure range from 300 to 900 Pa, to final version that enables usage of the detector in the range from vacuum up to 1000 Pa of water vapors in the specimen chamber of the microscope.