Optical transmittance of silica aerogel

This paper presents the investigation of aerogel Cherenkov radiation detectors and the optical characterization of aerogel samples within the framework of the SPD experiment at the NICA accelerator complex, which is under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia). The transmittance of aerogel samples was measured at the A. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (AANL) (Yerevan Physics Institute). Longitudinal transmittance measurements were performed for two distinct aerogel samples. Data analysis and visualization of results were carried out using the OriginPro 8.5 and ROOT software packages. The obtained results were compared with analogous studies performed at other research centers in order to evaluate the reliability, consistency and accuracy of the measurements.