Conveners
Detector Techniques (3A)
- Roberto Santorelli (CIEMAT)
One of the most significant challenges for future dual-phase xenon TPCs is achieving the high, uniform electric field needed in the gas layer. One solution is to avoid using gaseous xenon and instead to create the secondary scintillation within the liquid itself, in a single-phase xenon TPC. Within micrometres of thin wires, the electric field is high enough to enable VUV scintillation....
Proportional scintillation in liquid is a possible alternative scheme for charge-to-light signal conversion in future large-size liquid xenon TPCs. Based on detailed simulations we explore the implications on charge signal (S2) analysis arising from this fast scintillation process. The peaked signals allow precise reconstruction of the individual electrons and thus a quantized measure of the...
Dual phase time projection chamber using liquid xenon as target material is one of most successful detectors for dark matter direct search, and has improved the sensitivities of searching for weakly interacting massive particles by almost five orders of magnitudes in past several decades. However, it still remains a great challenge for dual phase liquid xenon time projection chamber to be used...
The dual-phase xenon Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is one of the most successful techniques for rare event searches. It detects both primary scintillation and ionization signals from particle interactions in liquid xenon (LXe) . The ionization electrons are converted into electroluminescence in the gas xenon, subsequently detected by the same photo-sensors for the primary scintillation....
To observe signals from low-energy nuclear recoils, including WIMP-xenon scatters, the LZ dark matter detector must maintain strong drift and extraction fields within its dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC). These fields are established by a set of four stainless steel wire mesh high voltage electrode grids that span the full width of the TPC. During operation at their design...
The Liquid Xenon Time-Projection Chamber (LXe TPC) is a leading technology in the fields of dark matter direct detection and neutrinoless double-beta decay searches, due in no small part to its scalability. The next generation of LXe TPCs intend to extend their drift lengths while maintaining their high operational electric fields (100s of Volts per cm). This increase in high voltage requires...
Dielectric breakdown strength is one of the critical performance metrics for gases and mixtures used in large, high pressure gas time projection chambers. We have experimentally studied dielectric breakdown strengths of several important time projection chamber working gases and gas-phase insulators over the pressure range 100 mbar to 10 bar, and gap sizes ranging from 0.1to 10 mm. Gases...
Physics experiments featuring liquid noble gas time projection chambers are becoming larger in scale. Consequently, their high voltage (HV) requirements have increased as well, making conventional design HV feedthrough (FT) impracticable. A new concept for an HV cable FT usable in a cryogenic environment is presented in this talk. It features a co-extruded multi-layered coaxial cable...
A scintillating bubble chamber with pure xenon was first operated in 2016 and has previously demonstrated coincident bubble nucleation and scintillation detection at thermodynamic thresholds above 4 keV. We now report on operation of the xenon bubble chamber at thermodynamic thresholds as low as 0.5 keV, including tests of bubble nucleation associated with gammas, and sensitivity to low energy...
We propose a technique for an ultra-low energy nuclear-recoil measurement in liquid xenon using thermal neutron capture. The measurement uses the recoils imparted to xenon nuclei during the de-excitation process following neutron capture, where the promptly emitted $\gamma$ cascade can leave the nuclei with up to $0.3$ keV$_\text{nr}$ of recoil energy. A successful measurement of the quanta...
