Scintillation and Ionization Responses of Liquid Xenon to Low Energy Electronic and Nuclear Recoils at Drift Fields from 236 V/cm to 3.93 kV/cm

Abstract

We present new measurements of the scintillation and ionization yields in liquid xenon for low energy electronic (about 3--7 keV${}_{ee}$) and nuclear recoils (about 8--20 keV${}_{nr}$) at different drift fields from 236 V/cm to 3.93 kV/cm, using a three-dimensional sensitive liquid xenon time projection chamber with high energy and position resolutions. Our measurement of signal responses to nuclear recoils agrees with predictions from the NEST model. However, our measured ionization (scintillation) yields for electronic recoils are consistently higher (lower) than those from the NEST model by about 5 e${}^{-}$/keV${}_{ee}$ (ph/keV${}_{ee}$) at all scanned drift fields. New recombination parameters based on the Thomas-Imel box model are derived from our data. Given the lack of precise measurement of scintillation and ionization yields for low energy electronic recoils in liquid xenon previously, our new measurement provides so far the best available data covering low energy region at different drift fields for liquid xenon detectors relevant to dark matter searches.

8 pages, 9 figures, submit to PRD

References in corpus (7)

• Dark Matter Results from 225 Live Days of XENON100 Data
• Results from the First Science Run of the ZEPLIN-III Dark Matter Search Experiment
• First limits on WIMP nuclear recoil signals in ZEPLIN-II: a two phase xenon detector for dark matter detection
• First dark matter search results from the PandaX-I experiment
• Observation of Anti-correlation between Scintillation and Ionization for MeV Gamma-Rays in Liquid Xenon
• Measurement of single electron emission in two-phase xenon
• Experimental study of ionization yield of liquid xenon for electron recoils in the energy range 2.8 - 80 keV

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Results from a search for dark matter in the complete LUX exposure
• Results of Dark Matter Search using the Full PandaX-II Exposure
• Tritium calibration of the LUX dark matter experiment
• Signal yields, energy resolution, and recombination fluctuations in liquid xenon
• Discrimination of electronic recoils from nuclear recoils in two-phase xenon time projection chambers
• Calibration of a two-phase xenon time projection chamber with a ${}^{37}$Ar source
• Signal Yields of keV Electronic Recoils and Their Discrimination from Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Xenon
• Detecting Beyond the Standard Model Interactions of Solar Neutrinos in Low-Threshold Dark Matter Detectors
• Neutral Bremsstrahlung emission in xenon unveiled
• Measurement of light and charge yield of low-energy electronic recoils in liquid xenon
• A Review of NEST Models for Liquid Xenon and Exhaustive Comparison to Other Approaches
• Determination of responses of liquid xenon to low energy electron and nuclear recoils using the PandaX-II detector
• Feasibility Study to use Neutron Capture for an Ultra-low Energy Nuclear-recoil Calibration in Liquid Xenon
• A Comprehensive Study of Low-Energy Response for Xenon-Based Dark Matter Experiments