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Herrero, V., Toledo, J., Catala, J. M., Esteve, R., Gil, A., Lorca, D., et al. (2012). Readout electronics for the SiPM tracking plane in the NEXT-1 prototype. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 695, 229–232.
Abstract: NEXT is a new experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay using a 100 kg radio-pure high-pressure gaseous xenon TPC with electroluminescence readout. A large-scale prototype with a SiPM tracking plane has been built. The primary electron paths can be reconstructed from time-resolved measurements of the light that arrives to the SiPM plane. Our approach is to measure how many photons have reached each SiPM sensor each microsecond with a gated integrator. We have designed and tested a 16-channel front-end board that includes the analog paths and a digital section. Each analog path consists of three different stages: a transimpedance amplifier, a gated integrator and an offset and gain control stage. Measurements show good linearity and the ability to detect single photoelectrons.
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Gil, A., Diaz, J., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Herrero, V., Rodriguez, J., Serra, L., et al. (2012). Front-end electronics for accurate energy measurement of double beta decays. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 695, 407–409.
Abstract: NEXT, a double beta decay experiment that will operate in Canfranc Underground Laboratory (Spain), aims at measuring the neutrinoless double-beta decay of the 136Xe isotope using a TPC filled with enriched Xenon gas at high pressure operated in electroluminescence mode. One technological challenge of the experiment is to achieve resolution better than 1% in the energy measurement using a plane of UV sensitive photomultipliers readout with appropriate custom-made front-end electronics. The front-end is designed to be sensitive to the single photo-electron to detect the weak primary scintillation light produced in the chamber, and also to be able to cope with the electroluminescence signal (several hundred times higher and with a duration of microseconds). For efficient primary scintillation detection and precise energy measurement of the electroluminescent signals the front-end electronics features low noise and adequate amplification. The signal shaping provided allows the digitization of the signals at a frequency as low as 40 MHz.
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NEXT Collaboration(Alvarez, V. et al), Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., Gil, A., et al. (2013). Near-intrinsic energy resolution for 30-662 keV gamma rays in a high pressure xenon electroluminescent TPC. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 708, 101–114.
Abstract: We present the design, data and results from the NEXT prototype for Double Beta and Dark Matter (NEXT-DBDM) detector, a high-pressure gaseous natural xenon electroluminescent time projection chamber (TPC) that was built at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It is a prototype of the planned NEXT-100 Xe-136 neutrino-less double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) experiment with the main objectives of demonstrating near-intrinsic energy resolution at energies up to 662 keV and of optimizing the NEXT-100 detector design and operating parameters. Energy resolutions of similar to 1% FWHM for 662 keV gamma rays were obtained at 10 and 15 atm and similar to 5% FWHM for 30 keV fluorescence xenon X-rays. These results demonstrate that 0.5% FWHM resolutions for the 2459 keV hypothetical neutrino-less double beta decay peak are realizable. This energy resolution is a factor 7-20 better than that of the current leading 0 nu beta beta experiments using liquid xenon and thus represents a significant advancement. We present also first results from a track imaging system consisting of 64 silicon photo-multipliers recently installed in NEXT-DBDM that, along with the excellent energy resolution, demonstrates the key functionalities required for the NEXT-100 0 nu beta beta search.
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NEXT Collaboration(Renner, J. et al), Alvarez, V., Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., et al. (2015). Ionization and scintillation of nuclear recoils in gaseous xenon. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 793, 62–74.
Abstract: Ionization and scintillation produced by nuclear recoils in gaseous xenon at approximately 14 bar have been simultaneously observed in an electroluminescent time projection chamber. Neutrons from radioisotope a-Be neutron sources were used to induce xenon nuclear recoils, and the observed recoil spectra were compared to a detailed Monte Carlo employing estimated ionization and scintillation yields for nuclear recoils. The ability to discriminate between electronic and nuclear recoils using the ratio of ionization to primary scintillation is demonstrated. These results encourage further investigation on the use of xenon in the gas phase as a detector medium in dark matter direct detection experiments.
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Tain, J. L., Algora, A., Agramunt, J., Guadilla, V., Jordan, M. D., Montaner-Piza, A., et al. (2015). A decay total absorption spectrometer for DESPEC at FAIR. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 803, 36–46.
Abstract: This paper presents the design of a total absorption gamma-ray spectrometer for the determination of beta-decay intensity distributions of exotic nuclear species at the focal plane of the FAIR-NUSTAR Super Fragment Separator. The spectrometer is a key instrument in the DESPEC experiment and the proposed implementation follows extensive design studies and prototype tests. Two options were contemplated, based on Nal(TI) and LaBr3:Ce inorganic scintillation crystals respectively. Monte Carlo simulations and technical considerations determined the optimal configurations consisting of sixteen 15 x 15 x 25 cm(3) crystals for the Nal(Tl) option and one hundred and twenty-eight 5.5 x 5.5 x 11 cm(3) crystals for the LaBr3:Ce option. Minimization of dead material was crucial for maximizing the spectrometer full-energy peak efficiency. Module prototypes were build to verify constructional details and characterize their performance. The measured energy and timing resolution was found to agree rather well with estimates based on simulations of scintillation light transport and collection. The neutron sensitivity of the spectrometer, important when measuring beta-delayed neutron emitters, was investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations.
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