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Register a new userFabrication of quencher-free liquid scintillator-based, high-activity $^{222}$Rn calibration sources for the Borexino detector
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Added by
David Bravo Bergu\\~no
Publication date
2017
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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A reliable and consistently reproducible technique to fabricate $^{222}$Rn-loaded radioactive sources ($sim$0.5-1 kBq just after fabrication) based on liquid scintillator (LS), with negligible amounts of LS quencher contaminants, was implemented. This work demonstrates the process that will be used during the Borexino detectors upcoming calibration campaign, with one or several $sim$100 Bq such sources will be deployed at different positions in its fiducial volume, currently showing unprecedented levels of radiopurity. These sources need to fulfill stringent requirements of $^{222}$Rn activity, transparency to the radiations of interest and complete removability from the detector to ensure their impact on Borexinos radiopurity is negligible. Moreover, the need for a clean, undistorted spectral signal for the calibrations imposes a tight requirement to minimize quenching agents (quenchers) to null or extremely low levels.
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