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Title: Liquid argon dielectric breakdown studies with the MicroBooNE purification system

Journal Article · · Journal of Instrumentation
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  1. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
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The proliferation of liquid argon time projection chamber detectors makes the characterization of the dielectric properties of liquid argon a critical task. To improve understanding of these properties, a systematic study of the breakdown electric field in liquid argon was conducted using a dedicated cryostat connected to the MicroBooNE cryogenic system at Fermilab. An electrode sphere-plate geometry was implemented using spheres with diameters of 1.3 mm, 5.0 mm, and 76 mm. The MicroBooNE cryogenic system allowed measurements to be taken at a variety of electronegative contamination levels ranging from a few parts-per-million to tens of parts-per-trillion. The cathode-anode distance was varied from 0.1 mm to 2.5 cm. The results demonstrate a geometric dependence of the electric field strength at breakdown. This study is the first time that the dependence of the breakdown field on stressed cathode area has been shown for liquid argon.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Contributing Organization:
MicroBooNE Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1296759
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-14-269-E-PPD; arXiv:1408.0264; oai:inspirehep.net:1309472
Journal Information:
Journal of Instrumentation, Vol. 9, Issue 11; ISSN 1748-0221
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 13 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

On the electric breakdown in liquid argon at centimeter scale journal March 2016
Design and Construction of the MicroBooNE Detector text January 2017
On the Electric Breakdown in Liquid Argon at Centimeter Scale text January 2015

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Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Liquid Argon
Time Projection Chambers
Dielectric Strength
Electric Breakdown
Stressed Area