Industrial Deposition of Wavelength-Shifting Films for Liquid Argon Photon Detection Systems

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an industrial physical vapor deposition process for producing uniform, high-quality wavelength-shifting films on large surfaces, suitable for liquid argon neutrino detectors, with improved scalability and reproducibility.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable, reproducible industrial PVD process for p-terphenyl coatings, adapted from OLED manufacturing, suitable for large-area neutrino detector applications.

Findings

Achieved uniform pTP coatings with less than 10% thickness variation.

Demonstrated reproducibility and scalability of the industrial process.

Maintained optical properties comparable to high-quality reference samples.

Abstract

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Phase-II Far Detector is considering an approximately 2000\,m$^2$ photon detection system to achieve a target mean light yield of 180\,PE/MeV. Meeting this requirement demands scalable, cost-effective, and high-quality wavelength-shifter (WLS) coatings capable of converting 127\,nm liquid-argon scintillation light into visible photons with controlled and reproducible optical performance. We report on the successful realization of an industrial physical vapor deposition (PVD) process for \textit{p}-terphenyl (pTP) coatings, adapted from vacuum deposition techniques developed for OLED display manufacturing, to produce uniform WLS layers on large-area inorganic substrates, a task traditionally challenged by adhesion and uniformity issues at organic--inorganic interfaces. Surface characterization by profilometry and spectroscopic measurements demonstrates edge-region thickness variation below 10\% and emission spectra consistent with high-quality pTP reference samples. The industrial process demonstrates reproducibility, scalability, and significantly reduced production time compared to laboratory-based methods, while maintaining optical characteristics consistent with established pTP reference samples. These results establish a viable pathway for mass production of high-performance pTP coatings for DUNE FD3 and future neutrino experiments, from a coating manufacturing and process standpoint. Detector-level performance validation, including quantitative VUV conversion efficiency measurements at 127\,nm, is identified as future work.