Limits on the release of Rb isotopes from a zeolite based 83mKr calibration source for the XENON project

Abstract

The isomer 83mKr with its half-life of 1.83 h is an ideal calibration source for a liquid noble gas dark matter experiment like the XENON project. However, the risk of contamination of the detector with traces of the much longer lived mother isotop 83Rb (86.2 d half-life) has to be ruled out. In this work the release of 83Rb atoms from a 1.8 MBq 83Rb source embedded in zeolite beads has been investigated. To do so, a cryogenic trap has been connected to the source for about 10 days, after which it was removed and probed for the strongest 83Rb gamma-rays with an ultra-sensitive Germanium detector. No signal has been found. The corresponding upper limit on the released 83Rb activity means that the investigated type of source can be used in the XENON project and similar low-background experiments as 83mKr generator without a significant risk of contaminating the detector. The measurements also allow to set upper limits on the possible release of the isotopes 84Rb and 86Rb, traces of which were created alongside the production of 83Rb at the Rez cyclotron.

11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Journal of Instrumentation

References in corpus (3)

• The ALICE TPC, a large 3-dimensional tracking device with fast readout for ultra-high multiplicity events
• First Dark Matter Results from the XENON100 Experiment
• Gator: a low-background counting facility at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory

Cited by in corpus (10)

• DARWIN: towards the ultimate dark matter detector
• The XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment
• The XENONnT Dark Matter Experiment
• Results from a Calibration of XENON100 Using a Source of Dissolved Radon-220
• A Rn-220 source for the calibration of low-background experiments
• The first dual-phase xenon TPC equipped with silicon photomultipliers and characterisation with ${}^{37}$Ar
• A novel ${}^{83\mathrm{m}}$Kr tracer method for characterizing xenon gas and cryogenic distillation systems
• ${}^{83}\mathrm{Rb}$/${}^{83m}\mathrm{Kr}$ production and cross-section measurement with 3.4 MeV and 20 MeV proton beams
• Reduction of ${}^{222}$Rn-induced Backgrounds in a Hermetic Dual-Phase Xenon Time Projection Chamber
• The Design, Implementation, and Performance of the LZ Calibration Systems