Accurate γ and MeV-electron track reconstruction with an ultra-low diffusion Xenon/TMA TPC at 10 atm

González-Díaz, D.; Álvarez, V.; Borges, F.I.G.M.; Camargo, Manuél; Cárcel, S.; Cebrián, S.; Cervera, A.; Conde, C.A.N.; Dafní, T.; Díaz, Julio Pérez; Esteve, R.; Fernandes, L. M. P.; Ferrario, P.; Ferreira, A. L.; Freitas, E.D.C.; Gehman, V. M.; Goldschmidt, A.; Gómez-Cadenas, J.J.; Gutiérrez, Rafael; Hauptman, J. M.; Morata, J. A. Hernando; Herrera, D.C.; Irastorza, I. G.; Labarga, L.; Laing, A.; Liubarsky, I.; López-March, N.; Lorca, D.; Losada, M.; Luzón, G.; Marí, A.; Martín-Albo, J.; Martínez-Lema, G.; Martínez, A.; Miller, T.; Monrabal, F.; Monserrate, M.; Monteiro, C. M. B.; Mora, Francisco; Moutinho, L.M.; Vidal, J. Muñoz; Nebot-Guinot, M.; Nygren, D. R.; Oliveira, C.; Pérez, Javier Laso; Pérez-Aparicio, José L.; Querol, M.; Renner, J.; Ripoll, L.; Rodríguez, J.; Santos, F.P.; Santos, J.M.F. dos; Serra, Llorenç; Shuman, D.; Simón, A.; Sofka, C.; Sorel, M.; Toledo, J.F.; Torrent, J.; Tsamalaidze, Z.; Veloso, J.F.C.A.; Villar, J. A.; Webb, R.; White, James T.; Yahlali, N.; Azevedo, C.D.R.; Aznar, Francisco; Calvet, D.; Castel, J.; Ferrer‐Ribas, E.; Garcı́a, Juan Antonio; Giomataris, I.; Gómez, H.; Iguaz, F.J.; Lagraba, A.; Coguie, A. Le; Mols, J.-P.; Şahin, Özkan; Rodríguez, A. Soto; Ruiz-Choliz, Elisa; Seguí, L.; Tomás, A.; Veenhof, R.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2015.08.033

Cited by 45 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The first one is the efficient cooling of ionization electrons due to its large inelastic cross section. This significantly reduces the amount of diffusion and improves tracking performances for neutrinoless double beta decay searches [4]. The reduction of electron diffusion also enhances charge recombination processes between any ions and electrons, which is essential for measuring the direction of short tracks using columnar recombination [3].…”

Section: Performance Improvements With Tmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of scintillation and ionization yield with high-pressure gaseous mixtures of Xe and TMA for improved neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches

et al. 2016

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The gaseous Xenon(Xe) time projection chamber (TPC) is an attractive detector technique for neutrinoless double beta decay and WIMP dark matter searches. While it is less dense compared to Liquid Xe detectors, it has intrinsic advantages in tracking capability and better energy resolution. The performance of gaseous Xe can be further improved by molecular additives such as trimethylamine(TMA), which is expected to (1) cool down the ionization electrons, (2) convert Xe excitation energy to TMA ionizations through Penning transfer, and (3) produce scintillation and electroluminescence light in a more easily detectable wavelength (300 nm). In order to test the feasibility of the performance improvements with TMA, we made the first direct measurement of Penning and fluorescence transfer efficiency with gaseous mixtures of Xe and TMA. While we observed a Penning transfer efficiency up to ∼35%, we found strong suppression of primary scintillation light with TMA. We also found that the primary scintillation light with Xe and TMA mixture can be well characterized by ∼3% fluorescence transfer from Xe to TMA, with further suppression due to TMA self-quenching. No evidence of the scintillation light produced by recombination of TMA ions was found. This strong suppression of scintillation light makes dark matter searches quite challenging, while the possibility of improved neutrinoless double beta decay searches remains open. This work has been carried out within the context of the NEXT collaboration.

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Section: Performance Improvements With Tmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of scintillation and ionization yield with high-pressure gaseous mixtures of Xe and TMA for improved neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches

et al. 2016

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“…We must note that it is a merit of this configuration that the materials and components that are close to the sensitive volume are reduced to a relatively simple set. Basically, the unavoidable levels are set by the microbulk foil at [15,16,18] the anode, and the materials involved in the construction of the vessel and field cage, that can conceivably be reduced, e.g. to teflon and copper.…”

Section: Originmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…External determination of the z-coordinate for the 511 keV is also obtained by tagging the second 511 keV photon in coincidence with a NaI detector. The external determination of z is used to test that no appreciable hint of attachment is present in the data for a wide range of drift fields [16,18]. Figure 10 shows some examples of 3D tracks reconstructed from the microbulk signals, corresponding to energies at the 1275 keV peak.…”

Section: Imaging Of Long Electron Tracks With Micromegasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Figure 11. Correlation of electron diffusion (width of pulse) versus z-coordinate experimentally obtained in low energy x-rays in 1 bar Xe+TMA [18] The energy of the events is extracted by summing the charge from every active pixel in the event after a careful low-level analysis including pixel-to-pixel calibration, control of non-functional pixels, temporal drift of gain, etc. Energy spectra for high statistics 22 Na runs are built, and energy resolutions down to ∼7% and ∼4% FWHM are obtained for the peaks of 511 keV and 1275 keV respectively (see Figure 10).…”

Section: Imaging Of Long Electron Tracks With Micromegasmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gaseous time projection chambers for rare event detection: results from the T-REX project. I. Double beta decay

Irastorza

Aznar

Castel

et al. 2016

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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Abstract. As part of the T-REX project, a number of R&D and prototyping activities have been carried out during the last years to explore the applicability of gaseous Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) with Micromesh Gas Structures (Micromegas) in rare event searches like double beta decay, axion research and low-mass WIMP searches. In both this and its companion paper, we compile the main results of the project and give an outlook of application prospects for this detection technique. While in the companion paper we focus on axions and WIMPs, in this paper we focus on the results regarding the measurement of the double beta decay (DBD) of 136 Xe in a high pressure Xe (HPXe) TPC. Micromegas of the microbulk type have been extensively studied in high pressure Xe and Xe mixtures. Particularly relevant are the results obtained in Xe + trimethylamine (TMA) mixtures, showing very promising results in terms of gain, stability of operation, and energy resolution at high pressures up to 10 bar. The addition of TMA at levels of ∼1% reduces electron diffusion by up to a factor of 10 with respect to pure Xe, improving the quality of the topological pattern, with a positive impact on the discrimination capability. Operation with a medium size prototype of 30 cm diameter and 38 cm of drift (holding about 1 kg of Xe at 10 bar in the fiducial volume, enough to contain high energy electron tracks in the detector volume) has allowed to test the detection concept in realistic experimental conditions. Microbulk Micromegas are able to image the DBD ionization signature with high quality while, at the same time, measuring its energy deposition with a resolution of at least a ∼3% FWHM @ Q ββ . This value was experimentally demonstrated for high-energy extended tracks at 10 bar, and is probably improvable down to the ∼1% FWHM levels as extrapolated from low energy events. In addition, first results on the topological signature information (one straggling track ending in two blobs) show promising background discrimination capabilities out of reach of other experimental implementations. Moreover, microbulk Micromegas have very low levels of intrinsic radioactivity, and offer cost-effective scaling-up options. All these results demonstrate that Micromegas-read HPXe TPC remains a very competitive technique for the next generation DBD experiments.

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“…A strip readout scheme, where pixels with the same horizontal or vertical coordinates are connected in series and read out together, is chosen to reduce the number of readout channels. Our work is one of the first and largest detectors aiming to characterize the performance of Microbulk Micromegas with strip readout [14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and commissioning of a 600 L Time Projection Chamber with Microbulk Micromegas

Lin¹,

Calvet²,

Chen³

et al. 2018

J. Inst.

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We report the design, construction, and initial commissioning results of a large high pressure gaseous Time Projection Chamber (TPC) with Micromegas modules for charge readout. The detector vessel has an inner volume of about 600 L and an active volume of 270 L. At 10 bar operating pressure, the active volume contains about 20 kg of xenon gas and can image charged particle tracks. Drift electrons are collected by the charge readout plane, which accommodates a tessellation of seven Micromegas modules. Each of the Micromegas covers a square of 20 cm by 20 cm. A new type of Microbulk Micromegas is chosen for this application due to its good gain uniformity and low radioactive contamination. Initial commissioning results with 1 Micromegas module running with 1 bar argon and isobutane gas mixture and 5 bar xenon and trimethylamine (TMA) gas mixture are reported. We also recorded extended background tracks from cosmic ray events and highlighted the unique tracking feature of this gaseous TPC.

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Accurate γ and MeV-electron track reconstruction with an ultra-low diffusion Xenon/TMA TPC at 10 atm

Cited by 45 publications

References 36 publications

Measurement of scintillation and ionization yield with high-pressure gaseous mixtures of Xe and TMA for improved neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches

Measurement of scintillation and ionization yield with high-pressure gaseous mixtures of Xe and TMA for improved neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches

Gaseous time projection chambers for rare event detection: results from the T-REX project. I. Double beta decay

Design and commissioning of a 600 L Time Projection Chamber with Microbulk Micromegas

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