Review of Liquid Argon Detector Technologies in the Neutrino Sector

Abstract

Liquid Argon (LAr) is one of the most widely used scintillators in particle detection, due to its low cost, high availability and excellent scintillation properties. A large number of experiments in the neutrino sector are based around using LAr in one or more Time Projection Chambers (TPCs), leading to high resolution three-dimensional particle reconstruction. In this paper, we review and summarise a number of these Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) experiments, and briefly describe the specific technologies that they currently employ. This includes single phase LAr experiments (ICARUS T600, MicroBooNE, SBND, LArIAT, DUNE-SP, ProtoDUNE-SP, ArgonCube and Vertical Drift) and dual phase LAr experiments (DUNE-DP, WA105, ProtoDUNE-DP and ARIADNE). We also discuss some new avenues of research in the field of LArTPC readout, which show potential for wide-scale use in the near future.

Study of visible-light emission in pure and methane-doped liquid argon

“…In liquid Ar TPCs for dark matter search [1] and neutrino detection [2] experiments, the scattered particle produces two types of signals: that of primary scintillation recorded promptly ("S1") and that of primary ionization recorded with a delay ("S2"). The ionization (S2) signal is recorded typically indirectly in the gas phase of two-phase detectors [3] using the effect of proportional electroluminescence [4].…”

Development of very-thick transparent GEMs with wavelength-shifting capability for noble element TPCs

“…Scaling up a dual-phase TPC brings challenges related to the stability and uniformity of charge and light collection, associated with liquid levelling, thermodynamical stability and space-charge effects at the liquid-gas interface (for a recent review of the detection schemes currently considered see e.g. [14]). Micropattern gas detectors (MPGDs) such as thick gaseous electron multipliers (THGEMs) were proposed as a scalable charge collection and amplification scheme for large LAr detectors [15] and have operated in large scales [16,17].…”

Development of very-thick transparent GEMs with wavelength-shifting capability for noble element TPCs

“…Scaling up a dual-phase TPC brings challenges related to the stability and uniformity of charge and light collection, associated with liquid levelling, thermodynamical stability and space-charge effects at the liquidgas interface (for a recent review of the detection schemes currently considered see e.g. [14]). Micropattern gas detectors (MPGDs) such as thick gaseous electron multipliers (THGEMs) were proposed as a scalable charge collection and amplification scheme for large LAr detectors [15] and have operated in large scales [16,17].…”