First Measurement of the Ionization Yield of Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Argon

T. H. Joshi, S. Sangiorgio, A. Bernstein, M. Foxe, C. Hagmann, I. Jovanovic, K. Kazkaz, V. Mozin, E. B. Norman, S. V. Pereverzev, F. Rebassoo, and P. Sorensen
Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 171303 – Published 1 May 2014

Abstract

This Letter details a measurement of the ionization yield (Qy) of 6.7 keV Ar40 atoms stopping in a liquid argon detector. The Qy of 3.6–6.3 detected e/keV, for applied electric fields in the range 2402130V/cm, is encouraging for the use of this detector medium to search for the signals from hypothetical dark matter particle interactions and from coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. A significant dependence of Qy on the applied electric field is observed and explained in the context of ion recombination.

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  • Received 10 February 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.171303

© 2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

T. H. Joshi1,2,*, S. Sangiorgio2, A. Bernstein2, M. Foxe2,3,†, C. Hagmann2, I. Jovanovic3, K. Kazkaz2, V. Mozin2, E. B. Norman1,2, S. V. Pereverzev2, F. Rebassoo2, and P. Sorensen2

  • 1Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 2Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA
  • 3Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA

  • *thjoshi@berkeley.edu
  • Present address: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd, Richland, 99354 WA, USA.

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Vol. 112, Iss. 17 — 2 May 2014

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