1. Accurate γ and MeV-electron track reconstruction with an ultra-low diffusion Xenon/TMA TPC at 10 atm
- Author
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L. Segui, N. López-March, F. Aznar, L.M. Moutinho, J. Torrent, T. Dafni, G. Martínez-Lema, A. Lagraba, A. Laing, Hector Gomez, M. Sorel, A.L. Ferreira, F.I.G.M. Borges, L.M.P. Fernandes, L. Ripoll, J. M. Hauptman, N. Yahlali, A. Tomás, M. Nebot-Guinot, J.F.C.A. Veloso, E.D.C. Freitas, D. Calvet, V. M. Gehman, Romain Esteve, I. Giomataris, D. Shuman, A. Le Coguie, J. T. White, Javier Pérez, S. Cebrián, E. Ruiz-Choliz, M. Losada, J.L. Pérez Aparicio, R. C. Webb, J.F. Toledo, S. Cárcel, F.J. Mora, D. Lorca, J. S. Díaz, C. Sofka, Carlos R. Oliveira, D.C. Herrera, Manuel Camargo, J. Martín-Albo, J.J. Gómez-Cadenas, R. Veenhof, M. Monserrate, Roberto Gutiérrez, Paola Ferrario, I. Liubarsky, J.M.F. dos Santos, I. G. Irastorza, T. Miller, J. F. Castel, C.A.N. Conde, A Rodríguez, G. Luzón, C.D.R. Azevedo, J. A. Garcia, A. Goldschmidt, Víctor H. Alvarez, Z. Tsamalaidze, F.P. Santos, J. A. Hernando Morata, J.P. Mols, José Villar, J. Muñoz Vidal, F. Monrabal, D. R. Nygren, A. Simón, Ana Martínez, F.J. Iguaz, Ö. Şahin, A. Cervera, Luis M. Serra, C.M.B. Monteiro, Diego González-Díaz, Javier Rodríguez, L. Labarga, E. Ferrer-Ribas, A. Marí, M. Querol, and J Renner
- Subjects
Nuclear and High Energy Physics ,MECANICA DE LOS MEDIOS CONTINUOS Y TEORIA DE ESTRUCTURAS ,Time projection chambers ,Analytical chemistry ,Double-beta decay ,Nuclear physics ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Electron ,7. Clean energy ,Penning-Fluorescent mixtures ,Microbulk micromegas ,TECNOLOGIA ELECTRONICA ,Xenon ,Double beta decay ,Instrumentation ,Physics ,Time projection chamber ,Resolution (electron density) ,MicroMegas detector ,Full width at half maximum ,Gamma and electron detection ,High pressure Xenon-Trimehylamine ,Volume (thermodynamics) ,chemistry ,Física nuclear - Abstract
We report the performance of a 10 atm Xenon/trimethylamine time projection chamber (TPC) for the detection of X-rays (30 keV) and gamma-rays (0.511-1.275 MeV) in conjunction with the accurate tracking of the associated electrons. When operated at such a high pressure and in similar to 1%-admixtures, trimethylamine (TMA) endows Xenon with an extremely low electron diffusion (1.3 +/- 0.13 mm-sigma (longitudinal), 0.95 +/- 0.20 mm-sigma (transverse) along 1 m drift) besides forming a convenient Penning-Fluorescent' mixture. The TPC, that houses 1.1 kg of gas in its fiducial volume, operated continuously for 100 live-days in charge amplification mode. The readout was performed through the recently introduced microbulk Micromegas technology and the AFTER chip, providing a 3D voxelization of 8 mm x 8 mm x 1.2 mm for approximately 10 cm/MeV-long electron tracks. Resolution in energy (epsilon) at full width half maximum (R) inside the fiducial volume ranged from R = 14.6% (30 keV) to R = 4.6% (1.275 MeV). This work was developed as part of the R&D program of the NEXT collaboration for future detector upgrades in the search of the neutrino-less double beta decay (beta beta 0 nu) in Xe-136, specifically those based on novel gas mixtures. Therefore we ultimately focus on the calorimetric and topological properties of the reconstructed MeV-electron tracks. In particular, the obtained energy resolution has been decomposed in its various contributions and improvements towards achieving the R =1.4%root MeV/epsilon levels obtained in small sensors are discussed, The NEXT collaboration acknowledges funding support from the following agencies and institutions: European Research Council under Advanced Grant 339787-NEXT and Starting Grant 240054-TREX, Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad under grants Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2008-0037 (CUP) and CSD2007-00042 (CPAN), contracts FPA2008-03456 and FPA2009-13697; Portuguese Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia; European FEDER under grant PPTDC/FIS/103860/2008; US Department Of Energy under contract DE-AC02-05CH11231.
- Published
- 2020