Results from the NEXT Protogypes

Journal Article · 04 October 2013 · Journal of Physics. Conference Series (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/460/1/012011 · OSTI ID:1096609

Oliveira, C A.B. ^[1]

---

1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

NEXT-100 is an electroluminescent high pressure Time Projection Chamber currently under construction. It will search for the neutrino-less double beta decay in ¹³⁶Xe at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory. NEXT-100 aims to achieve nearly intrinsic energy resolution and to highly suppress background events by taking advantage of the unique properties of xenon in the gaseous phase as the detection medium. In order to prove the principle of operation and to study which are the best operational conditions, two prototypes were constructed: NEXT-DEMO and NEXT-DBDM. In this study we present the latest results from both prototypes. We report the improvement in terms of light collection (~ 3x) achieved by coating the walls of NEXT-DEMO with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB), the outstanding energy resolution of 1% (Full Width Half Maximum) from NEXT-DBDM as well as the tracking capabilities of this prototype (2.1 mm RMS error for point-like depositions) achieved by using a square array of 8 x 8 SiPMs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain
• Contributing Organization: The NEXT Collaboration
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; FPA2009-13697-C04-04; CSD2008-0037
• OSTI ID: 1096609
• Journal Information: Journal of Physics. Conference Series (Online), Vol. 460; Conference: Sixth Symposium on Large TPCs for Low Energy Rare Event Decision, Paris (France) , 17-19 Dec 2012; ISSN 1742-6596
• Publisher: Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English