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arXiv · 1611.03737

Radon depletion in xenon boil-off gas

S. Bruenner·D. Cichon·S. Lindemann·T. Marrodán Undagoitia·H. Simgen
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Abstract

An important background in detectors using liquid xenon for rare event searches arises from the decays of radon and its daughters. We report for the first time a reduction of $^{222}$Rn in the gas phase above a liquid xenon reservoir. We show a reduction factor of $\gtrsim 4$ for the $^{222}$Rn concentration in boil-off xenon gas compared to the radon enriched liquid phase. A semiconductor-based $α$-detector and miniaturized proportional counters are used to detect the radon. As the radon depletion in the boil-off gas is understood as a single-stage distillation process, this result establishes the suitability of cryogenic distillation to separate radon from xenon down to the $10^{-15}\,$mol/mol level.

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S. Bruenner, D. Cichon, S. Lindemann, T. Marrodán Undagoitia, H. Simgen. 2016-11-11. Radon depletion in xenon boil-off gas. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc%2Fs10052-017-4676-1

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