Two distinct components of the delayed single electron noise in liquid xenon emission detectors
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
Single electron noise which persists for many milliseconds is known to follow ionizing events in liquid/gas xenon emission detectors. Due to the long timescale, this noise can be mistaken for a genuine signal. Therefore, it is a limiting background to the low-energy threshold of dark matter searches, and could prevent discovery-class searches for MeV scale hidden sector dark matter. A systematic study reveals distinct fast and slow components to the noise. The fast component is compatible with the hypothesis of electrons which were trapped below the liquid surface, and can be reduced by increasing the electric field across the liquid/gas interface. However, the slow component increases linearly with electric field. Hypotheses for the origin of this effect are discussed, and techniques for mitigation are suggested.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP) (SC-25)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 1485080
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Instrumentation, Journal Name: Journal of Instrumentation Journal Issue: 02 Vol. 13; ISSN 1748-0221
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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