Related papers: Technique for Surface Background Rejection in Liqu…
Future large liquid argon direct dark matter detectors can benefit greatly from an efficient surface background rejection technique. To aid the development of these large scale detectors a test stand, Argon-1, has been constructed at…
We describe a technique, applicable to liquid-argon-based dark matter detectors, allowing for discrimination of alpha-decays in detector regions with incomplete light collection from nuclear-recoil-like events. Nuclear recoils and alpha…
Decays of radioisotopes on inner detector surfaces can pose a major background concern for the direct detection of dark matter. While these backgrounds are conventionally mitigated with position cuts, these cuts reduce the exposure of the…
Discrimination between electron and nuclear recoil events in a liquid argon scintillation detector has been demonstrated with simulations by using the differences in the scintillation photon time distribution between these classes of…
For the development of liquid argon dark matter detectors we assembled a setup in the laboratory to scatter neutrons on a small liquid argon target. The neutrons are produced mono-energetically (E_kin=2.45 MeV) by nuclear fusion in a…
A two-phase argon detector has high discrimination power between electron recoil and nuclear recoil events based on the pulse shape discrimination and the ionization/scintillation ratio (S2/S1). This character is very suitable for the dark…
LArGe is a GERDA low-background test facility to study novel background suppression methods in a low-background environment, for future application in the GERDA experiment. Similar to GERDA, LArGe operates bare germanium detectors submersed…
We have developed a detector, consisting of a cryogenic calorimeter with a scintillating crystal as absorber, and a second calorimeter for the detection of the scintillation light, both operated at 12 mK. Using a CaWO4 crystal with a mass…
The MiniCLEAN dark matter experiment will exploit a single-phase liquid-argon detector instrumented with photomultiplier tubes submerged in the cryogen with nearly 4pi coverage of a 500 kg (150 kg) target (fiducial) mass. The high light…
The ArDM project aims at operating a large noble liquid detector to search for direct evidence of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) as Dark Matter in the universe. Background sources relevant to ton-scale liquid and gaseous argon…
Liquid argon is being employed as a detector medium in neutrino physics and Dark Matter searches. A recent push to expand the applications of scintillation light in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber neutrino detectors has necessitated…
In the case of underground experiments for neutrino physics or rare event searches, the background caused by cosmic muons contributes significantly and therefore must be identified and rejected. We proposed and optimized a new detector…
Using a single-phase liquid argon detector with a signal yield of 4.85 photoelectrons per keV of electronic-equivalent recoil energy (keVee), we measure the scintillation time dependence of both electronic and nuclear recoils in liquid…
Thermal detectors have recently achieved a leading position in the fields of neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches thanks to excellent energy resolution and numerous absorber material choices. These detectors operate at…
The DEAP-1 low-background liquid argon detector was used to measure scintillation pulse shapes of electron and nuclear recoil events and to demonstrate the feasibility of pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) down to an electron-equivalent…
Experiments searching for weak interacting massive particles with noble gases such as liquid argon require very low detection thresholds for nuclear recoils. A determination of the scintillation efficiency is crucial to quantify the…
A new method of searching for dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP) has been developed with the direct detection of the low energy nuclear recoils observed in a massive target (ultimately many tons) of ultra…
Scintillation light generated as charged particles traverse large liquid argon detectors adds valuable information to studies of weakly-interacting particles. This paper uses both laboratory measurements and cosmic ray data from the Blanche…
The scintillation time response of liquid argon has a key role in the discrimination of electronic backgrounds in dark matter search experiments. However, its extraordinary rejection power can be affected by various detector effects such as…
Phonon-mediated particle detectors based on single crystals and operated at millikelvin temperatures are used in rare-event experiments for neutrino physics and dark-matter searches. In general, these devices are not sensitive to the…