Surface background rejection technique for liquid argon dark matter detectors using a thin scintillating layer

TL;DR

This paper discusses a novel surface background rejection method for liquid argon dark matter detectors using a thin scintillating layer and pulse-shape discrimination, aiming to improve detection sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a new surface background rejection technique employing a thin scintillating layer and high-granularity SiPMs for improved event discrimination in liquid argon detectors.

Findings

Successful design of the Argon-1 test stand.

Implementation of pulse-shape discrimination for surface event rejection.

Ongoing development and testing of the technique.

Abstract

Future large liquid argon direct dark matter detectors can benefit greatly from an efficient surface background rejection technique. To aid the development of these large scale detectors a test stand, Argon-1, has been constructed at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, in the noble liquid detector development lab. It aims to test a novel surface background rejection technique using a thin layer of slow scintillating material at the surface of the vessel. Through pulse-shape discrimination of the slow light from the scintillating layer, events from the surface of the detector can be discriminated from liquid argon events. The detector will be implemented with high-granularity SiPMs for light detection which will be used to accurately identify surface events to characterize the proposed technique. An overview of the technique and the status of the experiment are discussed here.