Large-Scale, Precision Xenon Doping of Liquid Argon

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates precise xenon doping in a large liquid argon detector, significantly enhancing scintillation light yield, which is crucial for advancing particle physics experiments like dark matter searches.

Contribution

First large-scale, high-precision xenon doping in liquid argon, showing a nearly doubled light yield at 10 ppm concentration, advancing detector technology.

Findings

Light yield increased by a factor of 1.92 at 10 ppm xenon doping.

Achieved the most precise xenon doping measurements to date.

Doping technique demonstrated at 100-liter scale.

Abstract

The detection of scintillation light from liquid argon is an experimental technique key to a number of current and future nuclear/particle physics experiments, such as neutrino physics, neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches. Although the idea of adding small quantities of xenon (doping) to enhance the light yield has attracted considerable interest, this technique has never been demonstrated at the necessary scale or precision. Here we report on xenon doping in a 100 l cryogenic vessel. Xenon doping was performed in four concentrations of 1.00$\pm$0.06 ppm, 2.0$\pm$0.1 ppm, 5.0$\pm$0.3 ppm, and 10.0$\pm$0.5 ppm. These measurements represent the most precise xenon doping measurements as of publishing. We observed an increase in average light yield by a factor of 1.92$\pm$0.12(syst)$\pm$0.02(stat) at a dopant concentration of 10 ppm.