PT Journal
AU NEXT Collaboration (Alvarez, Vea
   Carcel, S
   Cervera-Villanueva, A
   Diaz, J
   Ferrario, P
   Gil, A
   Gomez-Cadenas, JJ
   Liubarsky, I
   Lorca, D
   Martin-Albo, J
   Martinez, A
   Monrabal, F
   Muñoz Vidal, J
   Nebot-Guinot, M
   Rodriguez, J
   Serra, L
   Simon, A
   Sorel, M
   Yahlali, N
TI Near-intrinsic energy resolution for 30-662 keV gamma rays in a high pressure xenon electroluminescent TPC
SO Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research A
JI Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A
PY 2013
BP 101
EP 114
VL 708
DI 10.1016/j.nima.2012.12.123
LA English
DE Xenon; Energy resolution; High-pressure; TPC; Electroluminescence; Neutrinoless double beta decay
AB 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.
ER