Near-intrinsic energy resolution for 30-662 keV gamma rays in a high pressure xenon electroluminescent TPC Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We present the design, data and results from the NEXT prototype for Double Beta and Dark Matter (NEXT-DBDM) detector, a high-pressure gaseous natural xenon electroluminescent time projection chamber (TPC) that was built at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It is a prototype of the planned NEXT-100 136Xe neutrino-less double beta decay (0) experiment with the main objectives of demonstrating near-intrinsic energy resolution at energies up to 662 keV and of optimizing the NEXT-100 detector design and operating parameters. Energy resolutions of 1% FWHM for 662 keV gamma rays were obtained at 10 and 15 atm and 5% FWHM for 30 keV fluorescence xenon X-rays. These results demonstrate that 0.5% FWHM resolutions for the 2459 keV hypothetical neutrino-less double beta decay peak are realizable. This energy resolution is a factor 7-20 better than that of the current leading 0 experiments using liquid xenon and thus represents a significant advancement. We present also first results from a track imaging system consisting of 64 silicon photo-multipliers recently installed in NEXT-DBDM that, along with the excellent energy resolution, demonstrates the key functionalities required for the NEXT-100 0 search. 2013 Elsevier B.V.

published proceedings

  • NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION A-ACCELERATORS SPECTROMETERS DETECTORS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT

author list (cited authors)

  • Alvarez, V., Borges, F., Carcel, S., Castel, J., Cebrian, S., Cervera, A., ... Yahlali, N.

citation count

  • 51

complete list of authors

  • Alvarez, V||Borges, FIGM||Carcel, S||Castel, J||Cebrian, S||Cervera, A||Conde, CAN||Dafni, T||Dias, THVT||Diaz, J||Egorov, M||Esteve, R||Evtoukhovitch, P||Fernandes, LMP||Ferrario, P||Ferreira, AL||Freitas, EDC||Gehman, VM||Gil, A||Goldschmidt, A||Gomez, H||Gomez-Cadenas, JJ||Gonzalez-Diaz, D||Gutierrez, RM||Hauptman, J||Hernando Morata, JA||Herrera, DC||Iguaz, FJ||Irastorza, IG||Jinete, MA||Labarga, L||Liubarsky, I||Lopes, JAM||Lorca, D||Losada, M||Luzon, G||Mari, A||Martin-Albo, J||Martinez, A||Miller, T||Moiseenko, A||Monrabal, F||Monteiro, CMB||Mora, FJ||Moutinho, LM||Munoz Vidal, J||Natal da Luz, H||Navarro, G||Nebot-Guinot, M||Nygren, D||Oliveira, CAB||Palma, R||Perez, J||Perez Aparicio, JL||Renner, J||Ripoll, L||Rodriguez, A||Rodriguez, J||Santos, FP||dos Santos, JMF||Segui, L||Serra, L||Shuman, D||Simon, A||Sofka, C||Sorel, M||Toledo, JF||Tomas, A||Torrent, J||Tsamalaidze, Z||Vazquez, D||Veloso, JFCA||Villar, JA||Webb, RC||White, JT||Yahlali, N

publication date

  • January 2013