Accurate gamma and MeV-electron track reconstruction with an ultra-low diffusion Xenon/TMA TPC at 10 atmospheres

Abstract

We report the performance of a 10 atm Xenon/trimethylamine time projection chamber (TPC) for the detection of X-rays (30 keV) and gamma-rays (0.511-1.275 MeV) in conjunction with the accurate tracking of the associated electrons. When operated at such a high pressure and in 1%-admixtures, trimethylamine (TMA) endows Xenon with an extremely low electron diffusion (1.3 +-0.13 mm-sigma (longitudinal), 0.8 +-0.15 mm-sigma (transverse) along 1 m drift) besides forming a convenient Penning-Fluorescent mixture. The TPC, that houses 1.1 kg of gas in its active volume, operated continuously for 100 live-days in charge amplification mode. The readout was performed through the recently introduced microbulk Micromegas technology and the AFTER chip, providing a 3D voxelization of 8mm x 8mm x 1.2mm for approximately 10 cm/MeV-long electron tracks. This work was developed as part of the R&D program of the NEXT collaboration for future detector upgrades in the search of the 0bbnu decay in 136Xe, specifically those based on novel gas mixtures. Therefore we ultimately focus on the calorimetric and topological properties of the reconstructed MeV-electron tracks.

References in corpus (11)

• Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay in ${}^{136}$Xe with EXO-200
• Radiopurity of Micromegas readout planes
• NEXT, a HPGXe TPC for neutrinoless double beta decay searches
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• Characterisation of NEXT-DEMO using xenon K${}_{\alpha }$ X-rays
• X-ray detection with Micromegas with background levels below 10${}^{-6}$ keV${}^{-1}$cm${}^{-2}$s${}^{-1}$
• Modelling the behaviour of microbulk Micromegas in Xenon/trimethylamine gas
• Performance of a new electron-tracking Compton camera under intense radiations from a water target irradiated with a proton beam
• Lessons from the operation of the "Penning-Fluorescent" TPC and prospects

Cited by in corpus (23)

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• Gaseous time projection chambers for rare event detection: Results from the T-REX project. I. Double beta decay
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• Neutral Bremsstrahlung emission in xenon unveiled
• Microscopic simulation of xenon-based optical TPCs in the presence of molecular additives
• Electron Drift and Longitudinal Diffusion in High Pressure Xenon-Helium Gas Mixtures
• Topological background discrimination in the PandaX-III neutrinoless double beta decay experiment
• Dielectric Strength of Noble and Quenched Gases for High Pressure Time Projection Chambers
• Double Beta Decay APPEC Committee Report
• Design and commissioning of a 600 L Time Projection Chamber with Microbulk Micromegas
• The TPC detector of PandaX-III Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay experiment
• Measurement of scintillation and ionization yield with high-pressure gaseous mixtures of Xe and TMA for improved neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches
• Microbulk Micromegas for the search of 0$\nu \beta \beta$ of 136Xe in the PandaX-III experiment
• Time and band-resolved scintillation in time projection chambers based on gaseous xenon
• Lessons from the operation of the "Penning-Fluorescent" TPC and prospects
• Double Beta Decay Experiments at Canfranc Underground Laboratory
• Pressure effect in the X-ray intrinsic position resolution in noble gases and mixtures
• TrackFormers: In Search of Transformer-Based Particle Tracking for the High-Luminosity LHC Era
• The potential of discrimination methods in a high pressure xenon TPC for the search of the neutrinoless double-beta decay of Xe-136
• High Pressure Gas Xenon TPCs for Double Beta Decay Searches
• A new imaging technology based on Compton X-ray scattering