Radio-assay of Titanium samples for the LUX Experiment

Abstract

We report on the screening of samples of titanium metal for their radio-purity. The screening process described in this work led to the selection of materials used in the construction of the cryostats for the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment. Our measurements establish titanium as a highly desirable material for low background experiments searching for rare events. The sample with the lowest total long-lived activity was measured to contain <0.25 mBq/kg of U-238, <0.2 mBq/kg of Th-232, and <1.2 mBq/kg of K-40. Measurements of several samples also indicated the presence of short-lived (84 day half life) Sc-46, likely produced cosmogenically via muon initiated (n,p) reactions.

The LUX Collaboration

References in corpus (2)

• First Dark Matter Results from the XENON100 Experiment
• The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Experiment

Cited by in corpus (9)

• The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Experiment
• Radiogenic and Muon-Induced Backgrounds in the LUX Dark Matter Detector
• Material radioassay and selection for the XENON1T dark matter experiment
• A Detailed Look at the First Results from the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Dark Matter Experiment
• Radiopurity control in the NEXT-100 double beta decay experiment: procedures and initial measurements
• Identification of Radiopure Titanium for the LZ Dark Matter Experiment and Future Rare Event Searches
• Cosmogenic activation of materials
• Dark Matter Search Backgrounds from Primordial Radionuclide Chain Disequilibrium
• The LUX Dark Matter Search -- Status Update