Pulse-shape discrimination and energy resolution of a liquid-argon scintillator with xenon doping Christopher G. Wahl,a,b Ethan P. Bernard,a W. Hugh Lippincott, a,c James A. Nikkel, a,d Yunchang Shin, a,e and Daniel N. McKinsey a* a Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA E-mail :
[email protected] b Now at H3D, Inc. Ann Arbor, MI, USA c Now at Fermilab, Batavia, IL, USA d Now at Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK e Now at TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC, Canada ABSTRACT : Liquid-argon scintillation detectors are used in fundamental physics experiments and are being considered for security applications. Previous studies have suggested that the addition of small amounts of xenon dopant improves performance in light or signal yield, energy resolution, and particle discrimination. In this study, we investigate the detector response for xenon dopant concentrations from 9 ± 5 ppm to 1100 ± 500 ppm xenon (by weight) in 6 steps. The 3.14-liter detector uses tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) wavelength shifter with dual photomultiplier tubes and is operated in single-phase mode. Gamma-ray-interaction signal yield of 4.0 ± 0.1 photoelectrons/keV improved to 5.0 ± 0.1 photoelectrons/keV with dopant. Energy resolution at 662 keV improved from (4.4 ± 0.2)% (σ) to (3.5 ± 0.2)% (σ) with dopant. Pulse- shape discrimination performance degraded greatly at the first addition of dopant, slightly improved with additional additions, then rapidly improved near the end of our dopant range, with performance becoming slightly better than pure argon at the highest tested dopant concentration.