27 February 2017 to 3 March 2017
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics
Asia/Novosibirsk timezone

Measurement of ionization yields of nuclear recoils in liquid argon using two-phase detector

1 Mar 2017, 17:20
20m
Contributed Oral Instrumentation for Astroparticle and Neutrino physics Instrumentation for Astroparticle and Neutrino physics

Speaker

Mr Vladislav Oleinikov (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS)

Description

Direct search for dark matter particles (WIMP - Weakly Interacting Massive Particle) is produced in the detectors of recoil nuclei through observation of WIMP elastic scattering on atomic nuclei of detector matter. The current situation with the observation signals from dark matter particles is quite confusing. Some authors believe that one of the reasons for these differences among different experiments is the problem of reliable calibration of energy scales for recoil nuclei. In this regard, particularly relevant is the problem of calibration of detectors for dark matter, and low-energy neutrinos, especially in the field of low energy of the recoil nuclei - less than 10 keV. In Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics we measured ionization yields of nuclear recoils in liquid argon using a two-phase Cryogenic Avalanche Detector (CRAD) with electroluminescence (EL) gap, operated in argon doped with a minor (49 ± 7 ppm) admixture of nitrogen at 87 K and 1.00 atm. The EL gap was optically read out using cryogenic PMTs located on the perimeter of the gap. We used DD generator to produce neutrons with 2.45 MeV energy.

Summary

The ionization yield in liquid Ar at an electric field of 0.56 kV/cm and 0.62 kV/cm amounted to 5.87±0.85 and 7.38±1.04 e−/keV at 233 keV, respectively. The number of electrons escaping recombination with positive ions, which we used for calibrations, gives the dominant error. The Jaffe model for nuclear recoil-induced ionization, in contrast to that of Thomas-Imel, describe the energy dependence of the ionization yield in range from 0.5 to 2.5 kV/cm.

Primary author

Mr Vladislav Oleinikov (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS)

Co-authors

Mr Alexander Bondar (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk State University) Mr Alexander Dolgov (Novosibirsk State University) Mr Alexey Buzulutskov (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk State University) Mr Andrey Sokolov (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk State University) Mrs Ekaterina Shemyakina (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS) Mr Evgeniy Grishnyaev (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS) Mr Lev Shekhtman (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS) Mr Sergey Polosatkin (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS) Mr Valeriy Nosov (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS)

Presentation Materials