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arXiv · 0908.3277

Operation of a 1-Liter-Volume Gaseous Argon Scintillation Counter

Kareem Kazkaz·Michael Foxe·Adam Bernstein·Christian Hagmann·Igor Jovanovic·Peter Sorensen·Wolfgang S. Stoeffl·Celeste D. Winant
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Abstract

We have built a gas-phase argon ionization detector to measure small nuclear recoil energies (< 10 keVee). In this paper, we describe the detector response to X-ray and gamma calibration sources, including analysis of pulse shapes, software triggers, optimization of gas content, and energy- and position-dependence of the signal. We compare our experimental results against simulation using a 5.9-keV X-ray source, as well as higher-energy gamma sources up to 1332 keV. We conclude with a description of the detector, DAQ, and software settings optimized for a measurement of the low-energy nuclear quenching factor in gaseous argon. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in part under Contract W-7405-Eng-48 and in part under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Funded by Lab-wide LDRD. LLNL-JRNL-415990-DRAFT.

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Kareem Kazkaz, Michael Foxe, Adam Bernstein, Christian Hagmann, Igor Jovanovic, Peter Sorensen, Wolfgang S. Stoeffl, Celeste D. Winant. 2009-08-22. Operation of a 1-Liter-Volume Gaseous Argon Scintillation Counter. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2010.06.088

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