The ZEPLIN-III dark matter detector: instrument design, manufacture and commissioning

Abstract

We present details of the technical design and manufacture of the ZEPLIN-III dark matter experiment. ZEPLIN-III is a two-phase xenon detector which measures both the scintillation light and the ionisation charge generated in the liquid by interacting particles and radiation. The instrument design is driven by both the physics requirements and by the technology requirements surrounding the use of liquid xenon. These include considerations of key performance parameters, such as the efficiency of scintillation light collection, restrictions placed on the use of materials to control the inherent radioactivity levels, attainment of high vacuum levels and chemical contamination control. The successful solution has involved a number of novel design and manufacturing features which will be of specific use to future generations of direct dark matter search experiments as they struggle with similar and progressively more demanding requirements.

25 pages, 19 figures. Submitted to Astropart. Phys. Some figures down sampled to reduce size

References in corpus (2)

• Simultaneous Measurement of Ionization and Scintillation from Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Xenon as Target for a Dark Matter Experiment
• The ZEPLIN-III dark matter detector: performance study using an end-to-end simulation tool

Cited by in corpus (23)

• The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Experiment
• Liquid noble gas detectors for low energy particle physics
• 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
• Observation of Anti-correlation between Scintillation and Ionization for MeV Gamma-Rays in Liquid Xenon
• Limits on the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross-sections from the first science run of the ZEPLIN-III experiment
• Measurement of single electron emission in two-phase xenon
• Low Background Gamma Spectroscopy at the Boulby Underground Laboratory
• Review of Liquid Argon Detector Technologies in the Neutrino Sector
• First results on light readout from the 1-ton ArDM liquid argon detector for dark matter searches
• Preparation of Neutron-activated Xenon for Liquid Xenon Detector Calibration
• Gamma Ray Spectroscopy with Scintillation Light in Liquid Xenon
• The ZEPLIN-III Anti-Coincidence Veto Detector
• Performance of the veto detector incorporated into the ZEPLIN-III experiment
• Experimental study of ionization yield of liquid xenon for electron recoils in the energy range 2.8 - 80 keV
• High Voltage in Noble Liquids for High Energy Physics
• Direct Search for Dark Matter - Striking the Balance - and the Future
• WIMP annihilation in caustics
• A machine learning-based methodology for pulse classification in dual-phase xenon time projection chambers
• Direct WIMP identification: Physics performance of a segmented noble-liquid target immersed in a Gd-doped water veto
• Measurement of the Angular Distribution of Wavelength-Shifted Light Emitted by TPB
• Design and production of the high voltage electrode grids and electron extraction region for the LZ dual-phase xenon time projection chamber
• What surfaces in the operation of noble liquids dark matter detectors