Related papers: Radon background in liquid xenon detectors
We describe the purification of xenon from traces of the radioactive noble gas radon using a cryogenic distillation column. The distillation column is integrated into the gas purification loop of the XENON100 detector for online radon…
Experiments searching for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter are now detecting background events from solar neutrino-electron scattering. However, the dominant background in state-of-the-art experiments such as LZ and XENONnT…
We characterize two 40 kBq sources of electrodeposited Th-228 for use in low-background experiments. The sources efficiently emanate Rn-220, a noble gas that can diffuse in a detector volume. Rn-220 and its daughter isotopes produce alpha,…
A potential source of dominant backgrounds for many rare-event searches or screening detectors is from radon daughters, specifically $^{210}$Pb, deposited on detector surfaces, often during detector fabrication. Performing a late-stage etch…
Radon-222 is a limiting background in many leading dark matter and low energy neutrino experiments. One way to mitigate Radon-222 is to fill external experimental components with a clean cover gas such as N2. At the SNOLAB facility in…
The next generation low-background detectors operating deep underground aim for unprecedented low levels of radioactive backgrounds. The deposition and presence of radon progeny on detector surfaces is an added source of energetic…
Rare event searches require extreme radiopurity in all detector components. This includes the active medium, which in the case of gaseous detectors, is the operating gas. The gases used typically include noble gas mixtures with molecular…
Radon is one of the most important sources of background in rare event search experiments, such as those searching for Dark Matter and neutrinos, due to its unavoidable production from natural uranium. In low-background experiments, radon…
Long-lived alpha and beta emitters in the $^{222}$Rn decay chain on detector surfaces may be the limiting background in many experiments attempting to detect dark matter or neutrinoless double-beta decay. Removal of tens of microns of…
The continuous emanation of $^{222}$Rn from detector surfaces causes the dominant background in current liquid xenon time projection chambers (TPCs) searching for dark matter. A significant reduction is required for the next generation of…
An ultimate liquid xenon experiment would be limited in its dark matter science reach by irreducible neutrino backgrounds, which are an exciting signal in their own right. To achieve such sensitivity, other backgrounds that currently plague…
The noble elements, argon and xenon, are frequently employed as the target and event detector for weakly interacting particles such as neutrinos and Dark Matter. For such rare processes, background radiation must be carefully minimized.…
$^{222}$Rn is a noble radioactive gas produced along the $^{238}$U decay chain, which is present in the majority of soils and rocks. As $^{222}$Rn is the most relevant source of natural background radiation, understanding its distribution…
In this work, the $^{222}$Rn contamination mechanisms on acrylic surfaces have been investigated. $^{222}$Rn can represent a significant background source for low-background experiments, and acrylic is a suitable material for detector…
The DEAP-1 \SI{7}{kg} single phase liquid argon scintillation detector was operated underground at SNOLAB in order to test the techniques and measure the backgrounds inherent to single phase detection, in support of the \mbox{DEAP-3600}…
Radon gas emanating from materials is of interest in environmental science and also a major concern in rare event non-accelerator particle physics experiments such as dark matter and double beta decay searches, where it is a major source of…
This paper details the first application of a software tagging algorithm to reduce radon-induced backgrounds in liquid noble element time projection chambers, such as XENON1T and XENONnT. The convection velocity field in XENON1T was mapped…
Liquid argon detectors are employed in a wide variety of nuclear and particle physics experiments. The addition of small quantities of xenon to argon modifies its scintillation, ionization, and electroluminescence properties and can improve…
$^{210}Po$ $\alpha$-decay driven neutron background is a concern for many rare event search experiments. It is a difficult to control background because its radiogenic component depends on the air exposure history of parts. In this study,…
Radon emanation was projected to account for $>50$% of the electron recoil background in the WIMP region of interest for the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. To mitigate the amount of radon inside the detector volume, materials with inherently…