Scintillation time dependence and pulse shape discrimination in liquid argon

Journal Article · Mon Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVC.78.035801· OSTI ID:21194982

Lippincott, W H; McKinsey, D N; Nikkel, J A ^[1]; Coakley, K J ^[2]; Gastler, D; Kearns, E ^[3]; Hime, A; Stonehill, L C ^[4]

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1. Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511 (United States)
2. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80305 (United States)
3. Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215 (United States)
4. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

Using a single-phase liquid argon detector with a signal yield of 4.85 photoelectrons per keV of electronic-equivalent recoil energy (keVee), we measure the scintillation time dependence of both electronic and nuclear recoils in liquid argon down to 5 keVee. We develop two methods of pulse shape discrimination to distinguish between electronic and nuclear recoils. Using one of these methods, we measure a background- and statistics-limited level of electronic recoil contamination to be 7.6x10{sup -7} between 52 and 110 keV of nuclear recoil energy (keVr) for a nuclear recoil acceptance of 50% with no nuclear recoil-like events above 62 keVr. Finally, we develop a maximum likelihood method of pulse shape discrimination based on the measured scintillation time dependence.

• OSTI ID: 21194982
• Journal Information: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Vol. 78, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.78.035801; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2813
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ARGON
CONTAMINATION
KEV RANGE
LIQUIDS
MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD FIT
PULSE SHAPERS
RECOILS
SCINTILLATIONS
STATISTICS
TIME DEPENDENCE