Liquid argon is an excellent medium for detecting particles, given its yields and transport properties of light and charge. The technology of liquid argon time projection chambers has reached its full maturity after four decades of continuous developments and is, or will be, used in world class experiments for neutrino and dark matter searches. The collection of ionization charge in these...
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) uses the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) technology to study the neutrino oscillation phenomenon using a long baseline. Beyond neutrino oscillations, the project has a broad and extensive physics program. To ensure precise and accurate spatial and calorimetric resolution in the DUNE LArTPCs, it is important to be able to calibrate...
In this talk we present CHARMS250, a next-generation cryogenic front-end application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designed in a 65 nm process for low-noise readout of charge or light signals generated within noble liquid time projection chambers (TPCs). The design of CHARMS250 is evolved from the LArASIC chip, which was manufactured in a 180 nm process and has been selected as the first...
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment is a dark matter direct detection experiment operating almost a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. LZ uses a 7 active-tonne dual-phase xenon time projection chamber primarily designed to detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a well-motivated class of dark matter candidate. This talk will give the...
The DarkSide-20k experiment, currently under construction at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS), represents a significant advancement in the field of direct Dark Matter (DM) detection. Utilizing a liquid argon dual-phase time projection chamber (LArTPC) with a 20-tonne fiducial mass, DarkSide-20k is designed to extend the sensitivity limits in the search for Weakly Interacting Massive...
The Recoil Directionality project (ReD) within the Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration characterized the response of a liquid argon (LAr) dual-phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC) to neutron-induced nuclear recoils, to measure the charge yield at low-energy. The charge yield is a critical parameter for the experiments searching for dark matter in the form of low-mass WIMPs and measurements...
Dual-phase noble liquid time projection chambers (TPCs) are at the forefront of direct dark matter detection experiments. Their functionality hinges on a meticulously designed homogeneous electric field structure defined by electrodes, material properties, and the relative permittivities of gas and liquid. These fields impact recombination processes within the target liquid (e.g xenon) and...
The quality, durability, and efficiency of a thin film heavily depend on surface cleaning procedures, deposition mechanisms, and pre- and/or post-deposition heat treatment. The annealing process, in turn, allows for the molecular rearrangement of the film, promoting its molecular chains to attain their most stable state possible, which can enhance the aforementioned properties. This study...
TPB is the standard wavelength shifter used in liquid argon/xenon experiments to convert scintillation light from deep UV to visible wavelengths, where typical photodetectors have non-negligible light detection efficiency. While TPB offers high light conversion efficiency, its use presents challenges: it is an organic powder that is difficult to deposit as a thin film on substrates like glass...
The SBND (Short Baseline Near Detector) is the near detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino Program (SBN) at Fermilab. Positioned 110 meters from the neutrino beam, the SBND will gather extensive data on neutrino-argon interactions. The SBND experiment utilizes the Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) technology for detection.
The Photon Detection System (PDS) consists of a passive...
We studied the conversion efficiency of Vacuum Ultra Violet light of PTP films as a function of their thickness. The PTP films were coated on dichroic filters or glasses at the Leptons Laboratory, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, using the vacuum evaporation technique. The arrangement of the filters within the evaporation chamber was done to ensure different levels of pTp deposition, with...
Liquid noble detectors are highly dependent on wavelength shifter materials, such as p-Terphenyl (pTP) and tetra-phenyl-butadine (TPB). These materials are key to the DUNE's far detector (for the former) and the DUNE's near detector, the SBDN and ICARUS (for the latter), for instance. Given their significance, it is of extreme importance to fully comprehend and characterize these compounds to...
Liquid argon-based scintillation detectors are essential for dark matter searches and neutrino physics. The light detection in such detectors is still an object of research for large volumes. Liquid argon scintillation light is generated in the vacuum ultraviolet region, so it can undergo Rayleigh scattering and absorption before it gets detected. Using wavelength shifters may improve the...
Study of geometric efficiency of photon detection in LArTPC using Monte Carlo simulation
V. S. Teixeira1, L. C. Muchak1, A. F. S. Lisboa1, M. Adames1, M. Antoniassi1
1Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná - UTFPR, Brazil
Abstract
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a...
In the context of the search for dark matter scattering signals with the nucleus, experiments using liquefied noble gases, such as argon (LAr) and xenon (LXe), play a significant role. The direct detection of dark matter particles with masses above 1 GeV/c² has already been extensively explored. Attention now turns to the low-mass region. An attractive opportunity in this region is the...
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an experiment under construction that will employ 10-kt scale liquid-argon-TPC technology to do precision measurements of neutrino oscillations. Apart from the determination of CP violation in neutrino interactions, one of the main scientific goals of DUNE is the detection of neutrinos from a supernova burst. It is imperative to maximise the...
Liquefied ultra-pure noble gases are typically the chosen target for neutrino and dark matter experiments. Commonly, the required grade of purity of such cryogenic liquids in terms of oxygen contamination (< 100 ppt), which makes it necessary for the Gaseous Argon (GAr) and/or the Liquid Argon (LAr) to circulate through adsorption columns filled, typically, with BASF Cu-0226S and Mol Sieve 4A...
The DARWIN project aims to build and operate a next-generation observatory for dark matter and neutrino physics, featuring a time projection chamber (TPC) with a proposed active target of 40 t of liquid xenon (LXe). Xenoscope is a full-scale vertical demonstrator for the future DARWIN detector built at the University of Zürich. Its main objective is to demonstrate electron drift over...
Low background detectors, such as those used in direct dark matter searches, require high-efficient neutron veto to reject nuclear recoil backgrounds. Gadolinium-doped polymethyl methacrylate (Gd-PMMA) has emerged as a promising solid neutron tagging material, with high hydrogen content for moderating neutrons and gadolinium content for capturing thermal neutrons and exploiting subsequent...
Scale-up of light collection scheme is a major challenge for the future multi-tonne detectors with surface area of many hundreds or even thousands of square meters. Large-format polymeric wavelength shifting foils are a compelling alternative to traditional vacuum evaporated coatings. Inspired by the success polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), which already finds use in large liquid argon...
Efficient Wavelength Shifters (WLS) are crucial for liquid Argon (LAr) detectors. As the LAr detectors grow larger in volume, the scalability of WLS becomes an important concern. Tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB), which is the most common WLS in use, becomes impractical for LAr detectors with more than 100 m^2 of surface area due to its high cost and energy requirements.
DarkSide-20k veto...
Silicon PhotoMultipliers (SiPMs) are being explored as potential photosensors employed in detectors operating at low temperatures, such as noble liquid (argon or xenon) experiments used in direct dark matter searches and neutrino physic investigations. Several studies have been conducted to optimize the features of these silicon photosensors, and many tests have been performed to improve the...
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an upcoming neutrino physics experiment that will answer some of the most compelling questions in particle physics and cosmology. The DUNE Far Detector (FD) exploits silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) to detect scintillation photons produced by the interaction of charged particles in the liquid Argon time projection chamber (LarTPC). Light...
The novel square Hamamatsu R12699-106-M4 2-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMT) feature a four-anode readout in a single low-profile package with a high photocathode coverage (about 75%). This makes them attractive as potential light detectors in future liquid-xenon based direct detection dark matter experiments, such as DARWIN/XLZD. The low-profile reduces buoyancy and therefore the amount of...
DUNE is a long-baseline (1300 km) neutrino experiment hosted at FNAL aimed at measuring neutrino mass ordering and CP violation by observing neutrino oscillations. DUNE will deploy four Liquid-Argon Time-Projection-Chamber (LArTPC) detectors with a combined mass of approximately 70 kT. The reconstruction of particle interactions, both from the beam and other sources, is achieved by collecting...
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment currently under construction in the US will be a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment dedicated to determining the neutrino mass ordering and to measure the CP violation phase in the lepton sector. DUNE will also perform studies of non-beam physics such as atmospheric neutrinos, bursts from supernovae and nucleon decays in which photon...
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) aims to probe CP violation in the neutrino sector and identify the neutrino mass hierarchy. In addition, using the DUNE Photon Detection System (PDS) can aid in reconstruction using charge information, improving the search for proton decay, observing supernova neutrino bursts, and studying solar neutrinos. DUNE will employ liquid argon time...
Most conventional noble liquid detectors employ scintillation light as either a timing signal for a TPC or as a calorimetric measurement, or both. Its relative amplitude and timing on multiple detectors can also be used to approximately locate an interaction.
Scintillation imaging goes a step further. By developing a suitable optical system, coupled with finely segmented SiPM arrays, it is...
We consider the relativistic photon diffusion equation for unbounded media of Lemiux et al, to which we present an analytical solution in terms of the physical parameters of a LArTPC. We account for photon absorption at the boundaries through physical considerations, instead of a boundary value problem. Then we compare our results to several Geant4 simulations and analyze the results and...
In this work, the algorithm for simulating scintillation is examined, particularly the one used in the Geant4 toolkit. Being widely adopted in experimental particle physics, Geant4 became the standard for detector simulation, including those based on noble elements, which in turn are used due to their scintillation properties. Geant4 algorithms for scintillation physics are 20 years old and...
Neutrons from the cavern in the DUNE Far Detector present a significant background in the low energy regime of a few MeV. Additionally, neutrons appear as the final state product in many low energy neutrino interaction channels in argon. Identifying the neutron capture signature is crucial for the DUNE low energy program. Neutron capture in argon releases a cascade of gamma rays, with the...
ICARUS is the largest Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) in operation and serves as the Far Detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program at Fermilab. It aims to investigate the possible existence of sterile neutrinos with $\Delta m^2$ ≈ 1 eV$^2$ using the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) and explore physics beyond the Standard Model with the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI)...
Single-phase noble-liquid detectors have been proposed as a potential solution to the limitations introduced by the liquid-gas interface of dual-phase time projection chambers.
Following our previous research on electroluminescence (EL) production in liquid xenon (LXe) using a classical microstrip plate design, we report our findings on the operation in LXe of a microstrip plate with a...
