Preliminary test results of LAr prototype detector

Liquid argon (LAr) is an attractive target for the direct detection of WIMPs. A LAr prototype detector was designed to study the technology and properties of LAr detectors. The prototype detector had an active volume containing 0.65 kg of liquid argon. A liquid nitrogen (LN) cooling system allowed the temperature fluctuation of the liquid argon to be controlled within less than 0.1 K during a one month run. In the ²²Na calibration run, the LAr prototype obtained 1.59±0.02 p.e./keV light yield for 511 keV gamma rays using a domestic-made argon purification system.     

Development of the liquid level meters for the PandaX dark matter detector

The two-phase xenon detector is at the frontier of dark matter direct search. This kind of detector uses liquid xenon as the sensitive target and is operated in two-phase （liquid/gas） mode, where the liquid level needs to be monitored and controlled in sub-millimeter precision. In this paper, we present a detailed design and study of two kinds of level meters for the PandaX dark matter detector. The long level meter is used to monitor the overall liquid level while short level meters are used to monitor the inclination of the detector. These level meters are cylindrical capacitors that are custom-made from two concentric metal tubes. Their capacitance values are read out by a universal transducer interface chip and are recorded by the PandaX slow control system. We present the developments that lead to level meters with long-term stability and sub-millimeter precision. Fluctuations （standard deviations） of less than 0.02 mm for the short level meters and less than 0.2 mm for the long level meter were achieved during a few days of test operation.     

Development of the liquid level meters for the PandaX dark matter detector

The two-phase xenon detector is at the frontier of dark matter direct search. This kind of detector uses liquid xenon as the sensitive target and is operated in two-phase (liquid/gas) mode, where the liquid level needs to be monitored and controlled in sub-millimeter precision. In this paper, we present a detailed design and study of two kinds of level meters for the PandaX dark matter detector. The long level meter is used to monitor the overall liquid level while short level meters are used to monitor the inclination of the detector. These level meters are cylindrical capacitors that are custom-made from two concentric metal tubes. Their capacitance values are read out by a universal transducer interface chip and are recorded by the PandaX slow control system. We present the developments that lead to level meters with long-term stability and sub-millimeter precision. Fluctuations (standard deviations) of less than 0.02 mm for the short level meters and less than 0.2 mm for the long level meter were achieved during a few days of test operation.     

Study of the material photon and electron background and the liquid argon detector veto efficiency of the CDEX-10 experiment

The China Dark Matter Experiment (CDEX) is located at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) and aims to directly detect the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP) flux with high sensitivity in the low mass region. Here we present a study of the predicted photon and electron backgrounds including the background contribution of the structure materials of the germanium detector, the passive shielding materials, and the intrinsic radioactivity of the liquid argon that serves as an anti-Compton active shielding detector. A detailed geometry is modeled and the background contribution has been simulated based on the measured radioactivities of all possible components within the GEANT4 program. Then the photon and electron background level in the energy region of interest (<10^-2 events·kg^-1·day^-1·keV^-1 (cpkkd)) is predicted based on Monte Carlo simulations. The simulated result is consistent with the design goal of the CDEX-10 experiment, 0.1cpkkd, which shows that the active and passive shield design of CDEX-10 is effective and feasible.     

掺钆液闪中子探测器的研制

中子在探测器中能产生与暗物质粒子（WIMPs）类似的核反冲信号,对于低背景的暗物质直接探测实验,精确测量和排除中子的干扰尤其重要。为测量中国锦屏地下实验室(CJPL)中子本底的通量,研制了高效的、具有很强中子-伽马分辨的掺钆液闪快中子探测器。介绍了掺钆液闪中子探测器的研制和性能,包括探测器形状和尺寸的设计,液体闪烁体类型、光电倍增管型号以及液闪容器材料的选择,探测器的伽马能量刻度以及中子与伽马信号的甄别。用Am-Be中子源对探测器进行探测效率刻度,得到阈值为0.2 MeV等效电子能量的中子探测效率为(6.300.30)%,满足中国锦屏地下实验室对中子通量测量的要求。     

用于暗物质探测实验的CsI(Tl)晶体探测器性能的实验研究

在直接测量暗物质的实验中,反冲核能量的Quenching Factor是一个重要参数.用低能X射线源对一套测量入射中子引起的反冲核能量Quenching Factor的系统进行了能量刻度,得到了这套系统的能量响应关系.PMT单光电子的发射对应于晶体中的能量沉积约为0.32keV.同时研究了不同能量的X射线引起的PMT输出电流信号的积分时间宽度与积分电荷的关系,得到最佳的PMT输出电荷收集条件.     

Measurement of muon-induced neutron yield at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory

Solar, terrestrial, and supernova neutrino experiments are subject to muon-induced radioactive background. The China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL), with its unique advantage of a 2400 m rock coverage and long distance from nuclear power plants, is ideal for MeV-scale neutrino experiments. Using a 1-ton prototype detector of the Jinping Neutrino Experiment (JNE), we detected 343 high-energy cosmic-ray muons and (7.86\begin{document}$ \pm $\end{document}3.97) muon-induced neutrons from an 820.28-day dataset at the first phase of CJPL (CJPL-I). Based on the muon-induced neutrons, we measured the corresponding muon-induced neutron yield in a liquid scintillator to be \begin{document}$(3.44 \pm 1.86_{\rm stat.}\pm $\end{document}\begin{document}$ 0.76_{\rm syst.})\times 10^{-4}$\end{document} μ^?1g^?1cm² at an average muon energy of 340 GeV. We provided the first study for such neutron background at CJPL. A global fit including this measurement shows a power-law coefficient of (0.75\begin{document}$ \pm $\end{document}0.02) for the dependence of the neutron yield at the liquid scintillator on muon energy.     

Results of dark matter search using the full PandaX-II exposure

We report the dark matter search results obtained using the full 132 ton·day exposure of the PandaX-II experiment, including all data from March 2016 to August 2018. No significant excess of events is identified above the expected background. Upper limits are set on the spin-independent dark matter-nucleon interactions. The lowest 90% confidence level exclusion on the spin-independent cross section is 2.2 × 10^?46 cm² at a WIMP mass of 30 GeV/c².     

Photoelectron extraction efficiency from cesium iodide photocathodes in a pressurized atmosphere of argon and xenon up to 10 bar

Photoelectron extraction efficiency is a key parameter in gaseous detectors design requiring CsI photocathodes, particularly in pressurized applications for rare event experiments. Within this work we report on our measurements of the photoelectron extraction efficiency from a CsI photocathode into argon and xenon up to 10 atm. It is demonstrated that the photoelectron extraction efficiency is independent from pressure when scaling the electric field accordingly. This measurement provides experimental validation to the Monte Carlo predictions.     

Application of the kinetic Monte Carlo method in the microscopic description of argon adsorption on graphite

We present an application of kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) in the canonical ensemble to a calculation of vapour liquid equilibrium and to describe the adsorption of argon on a flat graphite surface and in a slit-like graphitic pore. Simulations at 77 and 87.3?K accurately describe the experimental data. The kMC method is simple to implement and, unlike conventional Monte Carlo, no rejection trials are necessary. The only move is a uniform sampling of the volume space, which makes the determination of the chemical potential straightforward using real particles in the simulation, in the same spirit as the Widom inverse potential distribution. This avoids the need to freeze the real particles before the trial insertion of test particles as is necessary in other methods, such as the Widom method and its variants.     

Effect of liquid phase on the triple point pressure of argon

We report here a systematic data analysis of the vapour pressure of argon at different amounts of the liquid phase to understand the thermodynamic behaviour of this inert gas around triple point. At the triple point plateau, the applied heat pulse melts a certain phase of solid argon into liquid and increases vapour pressure. It is observed that this vapour pressure attains the thermodynamic equilibrium pressure after a certain time interval. The expoential decay of the vapour pressure as a function of time at different fractions of the liquid phase shows two different features. In one region, the relexation time constant (τ) is low and is not varying with the liquid phase, while in the other region the value ofτ increases with the amount of the liquid phase. Further, the peak pressure from the equilibrium pressure (ΔP _h), obtained from the fitting parameters, shows a dip at around 50% of the liquid phase. A qualitative physical interpretation has been given to explain these results.     

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为了研究等离子体与自由液态锂表面相互作用的物理过程,建立了用氩气驱动的液态锂回路装置。介绍了建立的液态锂回路装置的组成部分、技术参数及运行原理。此回路主要由主回路、等离子体与液态锂相互作用试验段和单阴极高密度等离子体发生装置三部分组成。目前,此回路已取得一些初步的模拟结果和实验结果。     

氩气驱动液态锂回路的总体设计及初步运行结果

为了研究等离子体与自由液态锂表面相互作用的物理过程,建立了用氩气驱动的液态锂回路装置。介绍了建立的液态锂回路装置的组成部分、技术参数及运行原理。此回路主要由主回路、等离子体与液态锂相互作用试验段和单阴极高密度等离子体发生装置三部分组成。目前,此回路已取得一些初步的模拟结果和实验结果。     

高电荷态离子40Arq+与Si表面作用中的电子发射产额

报道了在兰州重离子加速器国家实验室电子回旋共振离子源原子物理实验平台上，用高电荷态⁴⁰Ar^q+(1≤q≤12)离子作用于半导体Si固体表面时的电子发射产额实验测量.实验中，通过改变炮弹离子的电荷态和引出电压选取其不同的势能和动能，系统地研究了入射离子势能沉积和与其在固体中的电子能损对表面电子发射产额的贡献.结果表明，作为引起表面电子发射的两个主要因素，单离子的电子发射产额与炮弹离子在固体表面的势能沉积和电子能损都有近似的正比关系.     

Temperature dependence of the light yield of the LAB-based and mesitylene-based liquid scintillators

We studied the temperature dependence of the light yield of linear alkyl benzene(LAB)-based and mesitylene-based liquid scintillators. The light yield increases by 23% for both liquid scintillators when the temperature is lowered from 26 to-40, correcting for the temperature response of the photomultiplier tube. The measurements help to understand the energy response of liquid scintillator detectors. Especially, the next generation reactor neutrino experiments for neutrino mass hierarchy, such as the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory(JUNO), require very high energy resolution. As no apparent degradation on the liquid scintillator transparency was observed, lowering the operation temperature of the detector to ～4 will increase the photoelectron yield of the detector by 13%, combining the light yield increase of the liquid scintillator and the quantum efficiency increase of the photomultiplier tubes.     

Measurement of the optical absorption coefficient for liquid based on optical microfiber

An inline measuring method of the optical absorption coefficient for liquid based on optical microfiber (OM) is studied. If an OM is immersed into absorptive liquid, the additional loss of the OM will increase. We have analyzed the relationship between the additional loss of the OMs and the absorption coefficients of the liquids, and found that the OM with determinate construction will be useful for measuring the absorption coefficients of the liquid whose refractive index is lower than that of the OM. Two OM samples are prepared to measure the absorption coefficient of pure water. A supercontinuum source is launched into the OM sample which is immersed into pure water, and absorption spectrum from 1400 to 1700 nm has been achieved by monitoring the additional loss. The trend of the absorption spectrum is similar with that of the reported result, showing that the inline measurement of the optical absorption coefficient is a feasible method for those lower refractive index liquids.     

Unfolding the fast neutron spectra of a BC501A liquid scintillation detector using GRAVEL method

Accurate knowledge of the neutron energy spectra is useful in basic research and applications. The overall procedure of measuring and unfolding the fast neutron energy spectra with BC501A liquid scintillation detector is described. The recoil proton spectrum of 241Am-Be neutrons was obtained experimentally. With the NRESP7 code, the response matrix of detector was simulated. Combining the recoil proton spectrum and response matrix, the unfolding of neutron spectra was performed by GRAVEL iterative algorithm. A MatLab program based on the GRAVEL method was developed. The continuous neutron spectrum of ²⁴¹Am-Be source and monoenergetic neutron spectrum of D-T source have been unfolded successfully and are in good agreement with their standard reference spectra. The unfolded ²⁴¹Am-Be spectrum are more accurate than the spectra unfolded by artificial neural networks in recent years.     

Measurement of the response function and the detection effciency of an organic liquid scintillator for neutrons between 1 and 30 MeV

The light output function of a φ50.8 mm×50.8 mm BC501A scintillation detector was measured in the neutron energy region of 1 to 30 MeV by fitting the pulse height （PH） spectra for neutrons with the simulations from the NRESP code at the edge range. Using the new light output function, the neutron detection effciency was determined with two Monte-Carlo codes, NEFF and SCINFUL. The calculated effciency was corrected by comparing the simulated PH spectra with the measured ones. The determined effciency was verified at the near threshold region and normalized with a Proton-Recoil-Telescope （PRT） at the 8-14 MeV energy region.     

Measurement of the response function and the detection efficiency of an organic liquid scintillator for neutrons between 1 and 30 MeV

The light output function of a φ50.8 mm×50.8 mm BC501A scintillation detector was measured in the neutron energy region of 1 to 30 MeV by fitting the pulse height (PH) spectra for neutrons with the simulations from the NRESP code at the edge range. Using the new light output function, the neutron detection efficiency was determined with two Monte-Carlo codes, NEFF and SCINFUL. The calculated efficiency was corrected by comparing the simulated PH spectra with the measured ones. The determined efficiency was verified at the near threshold region and normalized with a Proton-Recoil-Telescope (PRT) at the 8-14 MeV energy region.     

Fluorescence intensity and anisotropy decays of the intrinsic tryptophan emission of hemoglobin measured with a 10-GHz fluorometer using front-face geometry on a free liquid surface

We measured the intensity and anisotropy decays of the intrinsic tryptophan emission from hemoglobin solutions obtained using a 10-GHz frequency-domain fluorometer and a specially designed cuvette which allows front-face excitation on a free liquid surface. The cuvette eliminates reflections and stray emissions, which become significant for low-intensity fluorescence such as in hemoglobin. Three lifetimes are detectable in the subnanosecond range. The average lifetime of hemoglobin emission is ligand dependent. The measured values of average lifetimes are 91, 174, and 184 ps for deoxy-, oxy-, and carboxyhemoglobin, respectively. Fluorescence anisotropy decays of oxy-, deoxy-, and carbonmonoxyhemoglobin can be fitted with up to three correlation times. When three components are used, the floating initial anisotropyr _o is, in each case, higher than the steady-state anisotropy of tryptophan in vitrified solution. For deoxy hemoglobin it is close to 0.4. The data are consistent with an initial loss of anisotropy from 0.4 to about 0.3 occurring in the first 2 ps.