Ultra-sensitive radon assay using an electrostatic chamber in a recirculating system
Abstract
Rare event searches such as neutrinoless double beta decay and Weakly Interacting Massive Particle detection require ultra-low background detectors. Radon contamination is a significant challenge for these experiments, which employ highly sensitive radon assay techniques to identify and select low-emission materials. This work presents the development of ultra-sensitive electrostatic chamber (ESC) instruments designed to measure radon emanation in a recirculating gas loop, for future lower background experiments. Unlike traditional methods that separate emanation and detection steps, this system allows continuous radon transport and detection. This is made possible with a custom-built recirculation pump. A Python-based analysis framework, PyDAn, was developed to process and fit time-dependent radon decay data. Radon emanation rates are given for various materials measured with this instrument. A radon source of known activity provides an absolute calibration, enabling statistically-limited minimal detectable activities of 20 Bq. These devices are powerful tools for screening materials in the development of low-background particle physics experiments.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2504.15464,
title = {Ultra-sensitive radon assay using an electrostatic chamber in a recirculating system},
author = {nEXO Collaboration and A. Anker and P. A. Breur and B. Mong and P. Acharya and A. Amy and E. Angelico and I. J. Arnquist and A. Atencio and J. Bane and V. Belov and E. P. Bernard and T. Bhatta and A. Bolotnikov and J. Breslin and J. P. Brodsky and S. Bron and E. Brown and T. Brunner and B. Burnell and E. Caden and L. Q. Cao and G. F. Cao and D. Cesmecioglu and D. Chernyak and M. Chiu and R. Collister and T. Daniels and L. Darroch and R. DeVoe and M. L. di Vacri and Y. Y. Ding and M. J. Dolinski and A. Dragone and B. Eckert and M. Elbeltagi and A. Emara and W. Fairbank and N. Fatemighomi and B. Foust and Y. S. Fu and D. Gallacher and N. Gallice and G. Giacomini and W. Gillis and A. Gorham and R. Gornea and G. Gratta and Y. D. Guan and C. A. Hardy and S. Hedges and M. Heffner and E. Hein and J. D. Holt and A. Iverson and X. S. Jiang and A. Karelin and D. Keblbeck and I. Kotov and A. Kuchenkov and K. S. Kumar and A. Larson and M. B. Latif and K. G. Leach and B. G. Lenardo and A. Lennarz and D. S. Leonard and K. Leung and H. Lewis and G. Li and X. Li and Z. Li and C. Licciardi and R. Lindsay and R. MacLellan and S. Majidi and C. Malbrunot and M. Marquis and J. Masbou and M. Medina-Peregrina and S. Mngonyama and D. C. Moore and X. E. Ngwadla and K. Ni and A. Nolan and S. C. Nowicki and J. C. Nzobadila Ondze and A. Odian and J. L. Orrell and G. S. Ortega and C. T. Overman and L. Pagani and H. Peltz Smalley and A. Perna and A. Piepke and A. Pocar and V. Radeka and E. Raguzin and R. Rai and H. Rasiwala and D. Ray and S. Rescia and F. Retiére and G. Richardson and N. Rocco and R. Ross and P. C. Rowson and R. Saldanha and S. Sangiorgio and S. Sekula and T. Shetty and L. Si and F. Spadoni and V. Stekhanov and X. L. Sun and S. Thibado and T. Totev and S. Triambak and R. H. M. Tsang and O. A. Tyuka and E. van Bruggen and M. Vidal and S. Viel and M. Walent and H. Wang and Q. D. Wang and Y. G. Wang and M. Watts and M. Wehrfritz and W. Wei and L. J. Wen and U. Wichoski and S. Wilde and M. Worcester and X. M. Wu and H. Xu and H. B. Yang and L. Yang and M. Yu and O. Zeldovich and J. Zhao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.15464},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
15 pages, 9 figures, 1 table