Ponente
Descripción
Xenon in gaseous and liquid form is a widely used detector target material for rare-event searches, including the direct detection of dark matter. Its scintillation properties in the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum are well-known and extensively utilized. However, the use of infrared (IR) scintillation light in xenon-based detectors remains largely unexplored. This contribution presents the first measurements of the time profile of the IR scintillation response in gaseous xenon.
Our dedicated setup incorporates an alpha particle source as well as one IR- and two UV-sensitive photomultiplier tubes. This enables precise nanosecond-resolution timing measurements of IR signals along with simultaneous measurement of the UV component. We observe that the IR time response can be described by a fast ($\mathcal{O}(\mathrm{ns})$) and a slow (($\mathcal{O}(µs)$) decay component. Remarkably, the size of the slow component decreases with increasing impurity levels in the gas. With this measurement, we can estimate the IR light yield and find that it is in the same order of magnitude as the UV yield.
These findings advance our understanding of the IR scintillation response in gaseous xenon and its potential implications for the development of future xenon-based detectors.
