Münster 2011 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 35: Astroteilchenphysik - Poster

HK 35.3: Poster

Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 14:00–16:00, Foyer Chemie

Design of a 2-phase Xe TPC for electron drift length measurements — •Johannes Schulz, Karen Bokeloh, Ethan Brown, Christian Huhmann, Hans Kettling, Stephan Rosendahl, and Christian Weinheimer — Institut für Kernphysik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

The XENON-Project will search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) by looking for nuclear recoil signals induced in a 2-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC). WIMPs hitting Xe-atoms produce electrons and scintillation light in the liquid. The electrons are forced by an electric field to drift towards the surface, where they are extracted and accelerated causing scintillation light in the gas. The scintillation signals can be detected by arrays of photosensitive detectors (PMTs) at the bottom and on top of the TPC. The signals of the PMTs give the x- and y-coordinate of the nuclear recoil event, the time between the first and the second light pulse gives the z-coordinate allowing a 3D localization of the interaction. A small TPC with a diameter of 80mm and a hight of 340mm will be integrated in our cryogenic purification system. The light readout will be done by two arrays at seven UV-sensitve Hamamatsu R8520-06-AL PMTs. The first TPC-setup will make drift length of 200mm possible and can stepwise be upgraded to 1000mm later on. Drift length measurements can indicate the level of contamination of the Xe with electronegative impurities. In addition we intend to provide R&D for the XENON-Project.
The project is supported by DFG and State NRW under contract INST 211/528-1 FUGG.