Recent progress in silica aerogel Cherenkov radiator
  In this paper, we present recent progress in the development of hydrophobic silica aerogel as a Cherenkov radiator. In addition to the conventional method, the recently developed pin-drying method for producing high-refractive-index aerogels with high transparency was studied in detail. Optical qualities and large tile handling for crack-free aerogels were investigated. Sufficient photons were detected from high-performance aerogels in a beam test. 
Makoto Tabata, Ichiro Adachi, Hideyuki Kawai, Masato Kubo, Takeshi   Sato
physics.ins-det hep-ex nucl-ex