No abstract

This article reviews the progress made over the last 20 years in the development and applications of liquid xenon detectors in particle physics, astrophysics and medical imaging experiments. We begin with a summary of the fundamental properties of liquid xenon as radiation detection medium, in light of the most current theoretical and experimental information. After a brief introduction of the different type of liquid xenon detectors, we continue with a review of past, current and future experiments using liquid xenon to search for rare processes and to image radiation in space and in medicine. We will introduce each application with a brief survey of the underlying scientific motivation and experimental requirements, before reviewing the basic characteristics and expected performance of each experiment. Within this decade it appears likely that large volume liquid xenon detectors operated in different modes will contribute to answering some of the most fundamental questions in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, fulfilling the most demanding detection challenges. From experiments like MEG, currently the largest liquid xenon scintillation detector in operation, dedicated to the rare "µ → eγ" decay, to the future XMASS which also exploits only liquid xenon scintillation to address an ambitious program of rare event searches, to the class of time projection chambers like XENON and EXO which exploit both scintillation and ionization of liquid xenon for dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay, respectively, we anticipate unrivaled performance and important contributions to physics in the next few years.PACS numbers: 95.35.+d, 29.40.Mc,95.55.Vj

No abstract

For the determination of the absolute scintillation yields -the number of scintillation photons per unit absorbed energy-for a variety of particles in liquid argon, a series of simultaneous ionization and scintillation measurements were performed. The results verified that scintillation yields for relativistic heavy particles from Ne to La are constant despite their extensive range of linear energy transfer. Such a constant level, called ''flat top response'' level, manifests the maximum absolute scintillation yield in liquid argon. The maximum absolute scintillation yield is defined by the average energy to produce a single photon, W ph ðmaxÞ ¼ 19:5 AE 1:0 eV. In liquid xenon, the existence of the same flat top response level was also found by conducting scintillation measurements on relativistic heavy particles. The W ph (max) in liquid xenon was evaluated to be 13:8 AE 0:9 eV using the W ph for 1 MeV electrons, obtained experimentally. The ratio between the two maximum scintillation yields at the flat top response level obtained in liquid argon and xenon is in good agreement with the estimation by way of the energy resolutions of scintillation due to alpha particles in both liquids.

No abstract