Doping Liquid Argon with Xenon in ProtoDUNE Single-Phase: Effects on Scintillation Light

Abstract

Doping of liquid argon TPCs (LArTPCs) with a small concentration of xenon is a technique for light-shifting and facilitates the detection of the liquid argon scintillation light. In this paper, we present the results of the first doping test ever performed in a kiloton-scale LArTPC. From February to May 2020, we carried out this special run in the single-phase DUNE Far Detector prototype (ProtoDUNE-SP) at CERN, featuring 720 t of total liquid argon mass with 410 t of fiducial mass. A 5.4 ppm nitrogen contamination was present during the xenon doping campaign. The goal of the run was to measure the light and charge response of the detector to the addition of xenon, up to a concentration of 18.8 ppm. The main purpose was to test the possibility for reduction of non-uniformities in light collection, caused by deployment of photon detectors only within the anode planes. Light collection was analysed as a function of the xenon concentration, by using the pre-existing photon detection system (PDS) of ProtoDUNE-SP and an additional smaller set-up installed specifically for this run. In this paper we first summarize our current understanding of the argon-xenon energy transfer process and the impact of the presence of nitrogen in argon with and without xenon dopant. We then describe the key elements of ProtoDUNE-SP and the injection method deployed. Two dedicated photon detectors were able to collect the light produced by xenon and the total light. The ratio of these components was measured to be about 0.65 as 18.8 ppm of xenon were injected. We performed studies of the collection efficiency as a function of the distance between tracks and light detectors, demonstrating enhanced uniformity of response for the anode-mounted PDS. We also show that xenon doping can substantially recover light losses due to contamination of the liquid argon by nitrogen.

36 pages, 20 figures. Corrected author list; corrected typos across paper and polished text

References in corpus (30)

• Design and Construction of the MicroBooNE Detector
• The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Experiment
• First Results from the DarkSide-50 Dark Matter Experiment at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
• The XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment
• Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay with the Complete EXO-200 Dataset
• The ArgoNeuT Detector in the NuMI Low-Energy beam line at Fermilab
• Supernova Neutrino Burst Detection with the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment
• First results on ProtoDUNE-SP liquid argon time projection chamber performance from a beam test at the CERN Neutrino Platform
• The scintillation of liquid argon
• Effects of Nitrogen contamination in liquid Argon
• Characterization of the Hamamatsu VUV4 MPPCs for nEXO
• The X-ARAPUCA: An improvement of the ARAPUCA device
• VUV-sensitive Silicon Photomultipliers for Xenon Scintillation Light Detection in nEXO
• Calorimetry for low-energy electrons using charge and light in liquid argon
• A Regenerable Filter for Liquid Argon Purification
• Demonstration of a Lightguide Detector for Liquid Argon TPCs
• Review of Liquid Argon Detector Technologies in the Neutrino Sector
• Liquid xenon scintillation measurements and pulse shape discrimination in the LUX dark matter detector
• A measurement of the group velocity of scintillation light in liquid argon
• Photon emission and atomic collision processes in two-phase argon doped with xenon and nitrogen
• Pulse-shape discrimination and energy resolution of a liquid-argon scintillator with xenon doping
• Intense Vacuum-Ultraviolet and Infrared Scintillation of Liquid Ar-Xe Mixtures
• A Novel Use of Light Guides and Wavelength Shifting Plates for the Detection of Scintillation Photons in Large Liquid Argon Detectors
• Table-top setup for investigating the scintillation properties of liquid argon
• Ion-beam excitation of liquid argon
• Xenon-Doped Liquid Argon TPCs as a Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Platform
• Attenuation of vacuum ultraviolet light in pure and xenon-doped liquid argon - an approach to an assignment of the near-infrared emission from the mixture
• The ProtoDUNE-SP LArTPC Electronics Production, Commissioning, and Performance
• Predicting Transport Effects of Scintillation Light Signals in Large-Scale Liquid Argon Detectors
• Fast component re-emission in Xe-doped liquid argon

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Self-compensating Light Calorimetry with Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber for GeV Neutrino Physics
• Impact of extreme ultraviolet radiation on the scintillation of pure and xenon-doped liquid argon