24–28 May 2021
America/Vancouver timezone

Measurement of gas properties in a Spherical Proportional Counter

26 May 2021, 08:42
18m
Parallel session talk Sensors: Gaseous Detectors Sensors: Gaseous Detectors

Speaker

Philippe Gros (Queen's University)

Description

NEWS-G (New Experiments With Spheres-Gas) is an experiment searching for dark matter using the Spherical Proportional Counter (SPC) technique. SPCs are low capacitance detectors which allow the detection of gas ionisation with very low (single electron) thresholds. It consists in a grounded metal sphere with a small sensing anode at the center, creating a radial electric field.

Using a UV laser, we extract electrons from the sphere surface, which allows a fine calibration of gain, diffusion and drift time of electrons in the SPC. We also use gaseous $^{37}$Ar as a uniformly distributed, low energy calibration source. These tools are used together with simulations to do a detailed characterisation of the detector. We will show in particular results obtained during a commissioning campaign at the Modane underground laboratory (LSM).

Another contribution to this conference describes the general aspects and goals of the NEWS-G detector.

TIPP2020 abstract resubmission? Yes, this would have been presented at TIPP2020.

Primary author

Philippe Gros (Queen's University)

Presentation materials