Sep 20 – 22, 2023
Europe/Madrid timezone

Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN) in LEGEND-1000

Sep 22, 2023, 12:15 PM
15m
Auditorium

Auditorium

oral presentation Session VIII

Speaker

Mr Andreas Leonhardt (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany)

Description

The LEGEND experiment aims to detect the neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{76}$Ge, which would prove the Majorana nature of neutrinos, with a sensitivity for the half-life of $10^{28}$ years. To this end, one tonne of high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors will be deployed in a segmented liquid argon (LAr) medium, which is used as coolant and instrumented as a detector for the active reduction of backgrounds. To further increase the background suppression efficiency, the scintillating and wavelength shifting polymer polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) will be used throughout the experiment. In this talk, we present the utilization of PEN for replacing optically inactive structural components, HPGe detector encapsulation and large-scale thin films. In order to meet the background limits and light yield requirements of the experiment, custom synthesis and moulding of PEN on semi-industrial scale is pursued. We report on the first results of a successful kilogram-scale production of PEN with full control over the production cycle. In addition, the photoluminescence yield and spectrum of the custom-made PEN after irradiation with VUV photons (128 nm) for temperatures between 300 K and 87 K are shown. Lastly, we give an outlook on further steps in the production and characterization of custom-made PEN.

Primary authors

Mr Andreas Leonhardt (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Dr Brennan Hackett (Max-Planck-Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany)

Co-authors

Dr Peter Bauer (Thuringian Institute for Textile and Plastics Research, Rudolstadt, Germany) Mr Viacheslav Belov (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Dr Tommaso Comellato (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Mrs Hershini Gadaria (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Mr Maximilian Goldbrunner (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Dr Konstantin Gusev (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Mr Florian Henkes (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, German) Mr Patrick Krause (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Dr Andreas Leuteritz (Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Dresden, Germany) Dr Béla Majorovits (Max-Planck-Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany) Prof. Susanne Mertens (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Prof. Florian Puch (Thuringian Institute for Textile and Plastics Research, Rudolstadt, Germany) Mrs Nadezda Rumyantseva (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Mr Mario Schwarz (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Prof. Stefan Schönert (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Dr Markus Stommel (Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Dresden, Germany) Mr Christoph Vogl (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany) Dr Michael Willers (Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany)

Presentation materials