“A Craftsman Must Sharpen His Tools to Do His Job,” said Confucius. Nuclear detection and readout techniques are the foundation of particle physics, nuclear physics, and particle astrophysics to reveal the nature of the universe. Also, they are being increasingly used in other disciplines like nuclear power generation, life sciences, environmental sciences, medical sciences, etc. The article reviews the short history, recent development, and trend of nuclear detection and readout techniques, covering Semiconductor Detector, Gaseous Detector, Scintillation Detector, Cherenkov Detector, Transition Radiation Detector, and Readout Techniques. By explaining the principle and using examples, we hope to help the interested reader underst and this research field and bring exciting information to the community.

In this paper, we propose Hformer, a novel supervised learning model for low-dose computer tomography (LDCT) denoising. Hformer combines the strengths of convolutional neural networks for local feature extraction and transformer models for global feature capture. The performance of Hformer was verified and evaluated based on the AAPM-Mayo Clinic LDCT Grand Challenge Dataset. Compared with the former representative state-of-the-art (SOTA) model designs under different architectures, Hformer achieved optimal metrics without requiring a large number of learning parameters, with metrics of 33.4405 PSNR, 8.6956 RMSE, and 0.9163 SSIM. The experiments demonstrated designed Hformer is a SOTA model for noise suppression, structure preservation, and lesion detection.

Particle tracking systems, which function either as particle detectors or beam monitors, are the critical elements for the high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility (HIAF) complex. The novel Topmetal-M pixel sensor, which combines the features of both monolithic active pixel sensor (MAPS) and the Topmetal sensor, can be used either for a pixel detector or a nondestructive beam monitor. The Topmetal got its name as some part of the pixel’s top metal layer is exposed to sense the drifting charge. In this article, a prototype particle tracking system, named Hi’Beam-S, has been designed to characterize the Topmetal-M sensor. The laser test shows a spatial resolution of $\sim 9 ~\mu \text{m}$ for the laser spot measurement. The heavy-ion beam test demonstrates that, for a 5-mm track with a ~20° incident angle, a spatial resolution of $\sim 1.59 ~\mu \text{m}$ could be achieved.