A Measurement of the Absorption of Liquid Argon Scintillation Light by Dissolved Nitrogen at the Part-Per-Million Level
- MIT, LNS
Here we report on a measurement of the absorption length of scintillation light in liquid argon due to dissolved nitrogen at the part-per-million (ppm)level. We inject controlled quantities of nitrogen into a high purity volume of liquid argon and monitor the light yield from an alpha source.The source is placed at different distances from a cryogenic photomultiplier tube assembly. By comparing the light yield from each position we extract the absorption cross section of nitrogen. We find that nitrogen absorbs argon scintillation light with strength of (1.51±0.15) × 10$$-$$4 cm$$-$$1ppm$$-$$1, correspondingto an absorption cross section of (4.99±0.51) × 10$$-$$21 cm2 molecule$$-$$1.We obtain the relationship between absorption length and nitrogenconcentration over the 0 to 50 ppm range and discuss the implicationsfor the design and data analysis of future large liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC)detectors. Our results indicate that for a current-generation LArTPC, wherea concentration of 2 parts per million of nitrogen is expected, the attenuationlength due to nitrogen will be 30±3 meters.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- OSTI ID:
- 1347947
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-PUB-13-213-E; arXiv:1306.4605; 1239161
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Instrumentation, Vol. 8, Issue 7; ISSN 1748-0221
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector
Mass-spectrometer method for determining helium in the parts-per-million to 10-percent range. Rept. of Investigations/1991