Preparation of Neutron-activated Xenon for Liquid Xenon Detector Calibration

TL;DR

This paper details a method to produce neutron-activated xenon for calibrating liquid xenon detectors, measuring gamma-ray emissions from metastable states to ensure accurate detector calibration.

Contribution

It introduces a neutron activation process for xenon and characterizes gamma-ray emissions for detector calibration purposes.

Findings

Measured gamma-ray activities at 164 keV and 236 keV from metastable xenon states.

Observed short-lived gamma-ray lines at 35 keV, 100 keV, and 275 keV.

No long-lifetime activity remained after activation.

Abstract

We report the preparation of neutron-activated xenon for the calibration of liquid xenon (LXe) detectors. Gamma rays from the decay of xenon metastable states, produced by fast neutron activation, were detected and their activities measured in a LXe scintillation detector. Following a five-day activation of natural xenon gas with a Cf-252 (4 x 10^5 n/s) source, the activities of two gamma ray lines at 164 keV and 236 keV, from Xe-131m and Xe-129m metastable states, were measured at about 95 and 130 Bq/kg, respectively. We also observed three additional lines at 35 keV, 100 keV and 275 keV, which decay away within a few days. No long-lifetime activity was observed after the neutron activation.