Ionization and scintillation of nuclear recoils in gaseous xenon

NEXT collaboration

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Abstract Ionization and scintillation produced by nuclear recoils in gaseous xenon at approximately 14 bar have been simultaneously observed in an electroluminescent time projection chamber. Neutrons from radioisotope α-Be neutron sources were used to induce xenon nuclear recoils, and the observed recoil spectra were compared to a detailed Monte Carlo employing estimated ionization and scintillation yields for nuclear recoils. The ability to discriminate between electronic and nuclear recoils using the ratio of ionization to primary scintillation is demonstrated. These results encourage further investigation on the use of xenon in the gas phase as a detector medium in dark matter direct detection experiments.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number57715
Pages (from-to)62-74
Number of pages13
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume793
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 11 2015

Keywords

  • Dark matter
  • High pressure xenon gas
  • Neutrinoless double beta decay
  • Nuclear recoils
  • WIMP

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Ionization and scintillation of nuclear recoils in gaseous xenon'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this