Direct comparison of high voltage breakdown measurements in liquid argon and liquid xenon

Abstract

As noble liquid time projection chambers grow in size their high voltage requirements increase, and detailed, reproducible studies of dielectric breakdown and the onset of electroluminescence are needed to inform their design. The Xenon Breakdown Apparatus (XeBrA) is a 5-liter cryogenic chamber built to characterize the DC high voltage breakdown behavior of liquid xenon and liquid argon. Electrodes with areas up to 33~cm${}^2$ were tested while varying the cathode-anode separation from 1 to 6~mm with a voltage difference up to 75~kV. A power-law relationship between breakdown field and electrode area was observed. The breakdown behavior of liquid argon and liquid xenon within the same experimental apparatus was comparable.

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Electroluminescence and electron avalanching in two-phase detectors
• Kiloton-scale xenon detectors for neutrinoless double beta decay and other new physics searches
• Neutral bremsstrahlung electroluminescence in noble liquids
• Dielectric Strength of Noble and Quenched Gases for High Pressure Time Projection Chambers
• Design and construction of Xenoscope -- a full-scale vertical demonstrator for the DARWIN observatory
• A study of DC electrical breakdown in liquid helium through analysis of the empirical breakdown field distributions
• The Electric Field Dependence of Single Electron Emission in the PIXeY Two-Phase Xenon Detector
• Study of dielectric breakdown in liquid xenon with the XeBrA experiment
• Development & Characterization of Electrodes for large-scale Xenon Time Projection Chambers