An atom trap trace analysis system for measuring krypton contamination in xenon dark matter detectors

Abstract

We have developed an atom trap trace analysis (ATTA) system to measure Kr in Xe at the part per trillion (ppt) level, a prerequisite for the sensitivity achievable with liquid xenon dark matter detectors beyond the current generation. Since Ar and Kr have similar laser cooling wavelengths, the apparatus has been tested with Ar to avoid contamination prior to measuring Xe samples. A radio-frequency (RF) plasma discharge generates a beam of metastable atoms which is optically collimated, slowed, and trapped using standard magneto-optical techniques. Based on the measured overall system efficiency of $1.2\times 10^{-8}$ (detection mode) we expect the ATTA system to reach the design goal sensitivity to ppt concentrations of Kr in Xe in $<2$ hours.

6 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Dark Matter Results from 225 Live Days of XENON100 Data
• Cold and trapped metastable noble gases
• Ar-39 Detection at the 10^-16 Isotopic Abundance Level with Atom Trap Trace Analysis
• Krypton assay in xenon at the ppq level using a gas chromatographic system and mass spectrometer

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Dark matter direct-detection experiments
• DARWIN: towards the ultimate dark matter detector
• Removing krypton from xenon by cryogenic distillation to the ppq level
• Krypton assay in xenon at the ppq level using a gas chromatographic system and mass spectrometer
• A novel ${}^{83\mathrm{m}}$Kr tracer method for characterizing xenon gas and cryogenic distillation systems
• A decay microscope for trapped neon isotopes
• Tracer Applications of Noble Gas Radionuclides in the Geosciences