Secondary scintillation yield in pure xenon

Abstract

The xenon secondary scintillation yield was studied as a function of the electric field in the scintillation region, in a gas proportional scintillation counter operated at room temperature. A large area avalanche photodiode was used for the readout of the VUV secondary scintillation produced in the gas, together with the 5.9 keV x-rays directly absorbed in the photodiode. The latter was used as a reference for the determination of the number of charge carriers produced by the scintillation pulse and, thus, the number of VUV photons impinging the photodiode. A value of 140 photons/kV was obtained for the scintillation amplification parameter. The attained results are in good agreement with those predicted, for room temperature, by Monte Carlo simulation and Boltzmann calculations, as well as with those obtained for saturated xenon vapour, at cryogenic temperatures, and are about a factor of two higher than former results measured at room temperature.

GEM scintillation readout with avalanche photodiodes

“…The GEM scintillation yield reached for a GEM voltage of 470 V is similar to that obtained for the electroluminescence produced in a 1 cm drift scintillation region and a uniform field of 4 kVcm -1 bar -1 in a GPSC [20]. On the other hand, the GEM scintillation yield achieved in xenon is 3 orders of magnitude larger than reached in quenched mixtures, e.g.…”

“…This method has been largely employed to measure the primary scintillation yield of inorganic crystals, e.g. [19] and references therein, and the electroluminescence yield of pure xenon in uniform electric fields [20].…”

Liquid noble gas detectors for low energy particle physics

“…The stated uncertainty reflects the variability of data published by different authors. A recent compilation of the coefficients a and b for xenon can be found in [220]. Despite more than 30 years of such measurements, the light yields reported by different authors differ by a factor of up to 2 even for recent data, with most lying below the values predicted theoretically [221,222].…”

Detection of VUV Light with Avalanche Photodiodes

“…In the case of Fig.3, the amount of energy deposited in silicon by the argon scintillation pulse is similar to what would be deposited by 30-keV X-rays directly absorbed in the APD. This feature allowed the absolute determination of the argon and the xenon scintillation yields, given the quantum efficiency of the APD and the solid angle subtended by the APD relative to the region where the scintillation occurred [37][38][39][40]. The performance characteristics of the APD in VUV light detection has been investigated as a function of voltage applied to the APD, using the information of the successive pulseheight distributions obtained for each voltage.…”