No Arabic abstract
The design, construction, and performance of a linear radio-frequency ion trap (RFQ) intended for use in the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) are described. EXO aims to detect the neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{136}$Xe to $^{136}$Ba. To suppress possible backgrounds EXO will complement the measurement of decay energy and, to some extent, topology of candidate events in a Xe filled detector with the identification of the daughter nucleus ($^{136}$Ba). The ion trap described here is capable of accepting, cooling, and confining individual Ba ions extracted from the site of the candidate double-beta decay event. A single trapped ion can then be identified, with a large signal-to-noise ratio, via laser spectroscopy.
EXO is a search for neutrinoless double beta decay in 136Xe. An active R&D program for a 10 ton, enriched 136Xe liquid phase detector is now underway. Current research projects are: decay product extraction, Xe purity studies, energy resolution studies, and Ba+ ion laser-tagging. By extracting and laser-tagging the Xe decay product (136Ba) and optimizing the energy resolution in liquid Xe, half lives of up to 5.0x10^28yr will be ultimately probed, corresponding to a sensitivity to Majorana n masses > ~10meV.
In the frame of the project MORA (Matters Origin from the Radio Activity of trapped and oriented ions), a transparent axially symmetric radio-frequency ion trap (MORATrap) was designed in order to measure the triple correlation parameter $D$ in nuclear $beta-$decay of laser-polarised ions. The trap design was inspired from the LPCTrap geometry, operated at GANIL from 2005 to 2013. In a real (non-ideal) Paul trap, the quadrupole electric potential is not perfect leading to instabilities in ion motion and therefore affecting the overall trapping efficiency. This paper presents a numerical method aiming to optimise the geometry of a trap. It is applied to MORATrap in order to improve the trapping efficiency and to enlarge the axial transparent solid angle compared to LPCTrap. In the whole optimisation process, numerical computation of electric potential and field was carried out using an electrostatic solver based on boundary element method (BEM). The optimisation consisted in minimising an objective function (fitness function) depending on higher order multipoles of the potential. Finally, systematic changes of trap dimensions and electrode displacements were applied to investigate geometrical effects on the potential quality.
We present ion backflow measurements in a Micromegas (MICRO-MEsh GASeous detector) TPC device developed for the next high energy electron-positron linear collider under study and a simple explanation for this backflow. A Micromegas micro-mesh has the intrinsic property to naturally stop a large fraction of the secondary positive ions created in the avalanche. It is shown that under some workable conditions on the pitch of the mesh and on the gas mixture, the ion feedback is equal to the field ratio (ratio of the drift electric field to the amplification field). Measurements with an intense X-ray source are in good agreement with calculations and simulations. The conclusion is that in the electric field conditions foreseen for the Micromegas TPC (drift and amplification fields respectively equal to 150-200 V/cm and 50-80 kV/cm) the expected ion backflow will be of the order of $2 - 3 x 10^-3$. In addition, measurements have been done in a 2T magnetic field: as expected the ion backflow is not altered by the magnetic field.
We discuss the design, operation, and calibration of t
We report the preparation of neutron-activated xenon for the calibration of liquid xenon (LXe) detectors. Gamma rays from the decay of xenon metastable states, produced by fast neutron activation, were detected and their activities measured in a LXe scintillation detector. Following a five-day activation of natural xenon gas with a Cf-252 (4 x 10^5 n/s) source, the activities of two gamma ray lines at 164 keV and 236 keV, from Xe-131m and Xe-129m metastable states, were measured at about 95 and 130 Bq/kg, respectively. We also observed three additional lines at 35 keV, 100 keV and 275 keV, which decay away within a few days. No long-lifetime activity was observed after the neutron activation.