Design and operation of a flash lamp for vacuum ultraviolet light production

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and testing of a flash lamp prototype for producing vacuum ultraviolet light to evaluate sensors used in noble liquid detectors for dark matter and neutrino experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel flash lamp device specifically designed for testing VUV-sensitive sensors in noble liquid detector applications.

Findings

The flash lamp prototype successfully operated at room temperature.

The lamp produced VUV light at relevant wavelengths for noble liquid detectors.

Initial tests demonstrated the lamp's potential for sensor calibration.

Abstract

Noble liquids, notably argon and xenon, are utilised as both detector media and as the detector target for dark matter and neutrino physics experiments. When the noble liquid is excited by particles, it scintillates vacuum ultraviolet light, which sensors then detect. A major focus of the detector development community is on producing precision light sensors for noble liquid detectors. We introduce a flash lamp to test VUV-sensitive light sensors with light at wavelengths observed at noble liquid detectors. This paper discusses the design and presents results from a flash lamp prototype operated at room temperature.