Primary scintillation yields induced by $\alpha$ particles in gas mixtures of Argon/CF$_4$ at 9.5 bar

TL;DR

This study investigates alpha particle-induced scintillation in Argon/CF4 gas mixtures at 9.5 bar, demonstrating promising light yields and fast decay times suitable for advanced particle detection applications.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed time and band-resolved scintillation data for Ar/CF4 mixtures at high pressure, highlighting their potential for next-generation time projection chambers.

Findings

Yields of about 1000 photons/MeV in visible range

Decay times of 9-25 ns for scintillation signals

Formation times below 10 ns enabling fast detection

Abstract

We report time and band-resolved scintillation from $\alpha$-particles in Ar/CF$_4$ mixtures at a pressure of 9.5 bar. Our results show that %-level addition of CF$_4$ enables strong wavelength-shifted scintillation in the visible range, with yields at the level of 1000 ph/MeV, scintillation decay times of 9-25 ns and formation times well below 10 ns. Such a performance is a priori sufficient for accurate time-tagging of MeV-particles, without the need to resort to a pure noble gas, thus opening an appealing technological path for next-generation time projection chambers.