We have built a gas-phase argon ionization detector to measure small nuclear recoil energies (< 10 keVee). In this paper, we describe the detector response to X-ray and gamma calibration sources, including analysis of pulse shapes, software triggers, optimization of gas content, and energy- and position-dependence of the signal. We compare our experimental results against simulation using a 5.9-keV X-ray source, as well as higher-energy gamma sources up to 1332 keV. We conclude with a description of the detector, DAQ, and software settings optimized for a measurement of the low-energy nuclear quenching factor in gaseous argon. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in part under Contract W-7405-Eng-48 and in part under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Funded by Lab-wide LDRD. LLNL-JRNL-415990-DRAFT.
@article{arxiv.0908.3277,
title = {Operation of a 1-Liter-Volume Gaseous Argon Scintillation Counter},
author = {Kareem Kazkaz and Michael Foxe and Adam Bernstein and Christian Hagmann and Igor Jovanovic and Peter Sorensen and Wolfgang S. Stoeffl and Celeste D. Winant},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.3277},
year = {2014}
}