Scintillation of thin tetraphenyl butadiene films under alpha particle excitation

Abstract

The alpha induced scintillation of the wavelength shifter 1,1,4,4-tetraphenyl-1,3-butadiene (TPB) was studied to improve the understanding of possible surface alpha backgrounds in the DEAP dark matter search experiment. We found that vacuum deposited thin TPB films emit 882 +/-210 photons per MeV under alpha particle excitation. The scintillation pulse shape consists of a double exponential decay with lifetimes of 11 +/-5 ns and 275 +/-10ns.

paper submitted to Nuclear Physics A

References in corpus (2)

• First results from a Dark Matter search with liquid Argon at 87 K in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory
• Measurement of the scintillation time spectra and pulse-shape discrimination of low-energy beta and nuclear recoils in liquid argon with DEAP-1

Cited by in corpus (16)

• First Results from the DarkSide-50 Dark Matter Experiment at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
• Design and Construction of the DEAP-3600 Dark Matter Detector
• Wavelength shifters for applications in liquid argon detectors
• Demonstration of a Lightguide Detector for Liquid Argon TPCs
• The liquid-argon scintillation pulseshape in DEAP-3600
• Polyethylene naphthalate film as a wavelength shifter in liquid argon detectors
• Radon backgrounds in the DEAP-1 liquid-argon-based Dark Matter detector
• Application of the TPB Wavelength Shifter to the DEAP-3600 Spherical Acrylic Vessel Inner Surface
• DEAP-3600 Dark Matter Search
• Surface background suppression in liquid argon dark matter detectors using a newly discovered time component of tetraphenyl-butadiene scintillation
• First measurement of surface nuclear recoil background for argon dark matter searches
• Development and characterization of a slow wavelength shifting coating for background rejection in liquid argon detectors
• Spin coating TPB film on acrylics and measurement of its wavelength shifting efficiency
• Technique for Surface Background Rejection in Liquid Argon Dark Matter Detectors using Layered Wavelength-Shifting and Scintillating Thin Films
• Surface background rejection technique for liquid argon dark matter detectors using a thin scintillating layer
• In-situ Surface Contamination Removal and Cool-down Process of the DEAP-3600 Experiment