$\rm ^{83}Rb$/$\rm ^{83m}Kr$ production and cross-section measurement with 3.4 MeV and 20 MeV proton beams

TL;DR

This study demonstrates the production of $ m ^{83}Rb$/$ m ^{83m}Kr$ using low and high energy proton beams, measuring production rates and successfully calibrating a liquid xenon detector with the generated $ m ^{83m}Kr$ source.

Contribution

First measurement of $ m ^{83}Rb$/$ m ^{83m}Kr$ production rates with 3.4 MeV and 20 MeV proton beams, enabling improved calibration sources for liquid noble gas detectors.

Findings

Successful production of $ m ^{83}Rb$/$ m ^{83m}Kr$ with 3.4 MeV proton beam.

Production rates at 20 MeV consistent with previous data.

Effective injection of $ m ^{83m}Kr$ into PandaX-II detector for calibration.

Abstract

$\rm ^{83m}Kr$, with a short lifetime, is an ideal calibration source for liquid xenon or liquid argon detectors. The $\rm ^{83m}Kr$ isomer can be generated through the decay of $\rm ^{83} Rb$ isotope which is usually produced by proton beams bombarding natural krypton atoms. In this paper, we report a successful production of $\rm ^{83}Rb/^{83m}Kr$ with a proton beam energy of 3.4 MeV, and the first measurement of the production rate with such low energy proton beams. Another production attempt is performed using the newly available 20 MeV proton beam in China, and the measured production rate is consistent with previous measurements. The produced $\rm ^{83m}Kr$ source has been successfully injected into the PandaX-II liquid xenon detector, yielding enough statistics for detector calibration.