Scintillation of Liquid Helium for Low-Energy Nuclear Recoils

Abstract

The scintillation properties of liquid helium upon the recoil of a low energy helium atom are discussed in the context of the possible use of this medium as a detector of dark matter. It is found that the prompt scintillation yield in the range of recoil energies from a few keV to 100 keV is somewhat higher than that obtained by a linear extrapolation from the measured yield for an 5 MeV alpha particle. A comparison is made of both the scintillation yield and the charge separation by an electric field for nuclear recoils and for electrons stopped in helium.

To appear in Phys. Rev. C

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• Signatures and Detection Prospects for sub-GeV Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium
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