LASER monitoring system for the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter

Abstract: The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN uses a scintillator-iron technique for its hadronic Tile Calorimeter (TileCal). Scintillating light is readout via 9852 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Calibration and monitoring of these PMTs are made using a LASER based system. Short light pulses are sent simultaneously into all the TileCal photomultiplier''s tubes (PMTs) during ATLAS physics runs, thus providing essential information for ATLAS data quality and monitoring analyses. The experimental setup developed for this purpose is described as well as preliminary results obtained during ATLAS commissioning phase in 2008. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]