The prototype of the High Energy cosmic Radiation Detection facility (HERD) had its beam experiment at CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) to test its scheme and technologies from November 11 to 20, 2015.

The prototype is composed of 250 pieces of crystals, about one fortieth of the designed scale. The crystal cube and triggering system were built by IHEP and the ICCD system by Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics.

The experiment has been very successful with eight million triggering events being obtained. The energy resolution of the signals read with a PMT was better than 2%@100 GeV (1 sigma), and better than 5%@10 GeV (1 sigma) with ICCD. The success of the beam experiment will be very helpful to the HERD design and fabrication and to its early approval as well. The Italian University of Bari and University of Perujia provided PS triggering system and STK positioning and electric charge measuring system for the experiment.

HERD, jointly proposed by IHEP and the Purple Mountain Observatory, is scheduled to be launched to China's space station in 2022. Its main scientific goals are to search for dark matter particles, precisely measure the spectrum and components of the Galactic cosmic rays, and to observe high energy gamma rays.

HERD Prototype Experiment Accomplished at CERN SPS（Image by IHEP）