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Register a new userThe development of $^{222}$Rn detectors for JUNO prototype
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The radioactive noble gas $^{222}$Rn, which can be dissolved in water, is an important background source for JUNO. In this paper, based on the water system of JUNO prototype, two kinds of high sensitivity radon detectors have been proposed and developed. The sensitivity of Si-PIN Rn detector, which uses a Si-PIN photodiode to detect the $alpha$ from $^{214}$Po decay, is $sim$9.0~mBq/m$^3$. The sensitivity of LS Rn detector, which uses liquid scintillator to detect the coincident signals of $beta$ from $^{214}$Bi decay and $alpha$ from $^{214}$Po decay, is $sim$64.0~mBq/m$^3$. Both of the two kinds of Rn detector have the potential to be developed as an online Rn concentration monitoring equipment for JUNO veto detector.
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The selection of low-radioactive construction materials is of utmost importance for the success of low-energy rare event search experiments. Besides radioactive contaminants in the bulk, the emanation of radioactive radon atoms from material surfaces attains increasing relevance in the effort to further reduce the background of such experiments. In this work, we present the $^{222}$Rn emanation measurements performed for the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Together with the bulk impurity screening campaign, the results enabled us to select the radio-purest construction materials, targeting a $^{222}$Rn activity concentration of 10 $mu$Bq/kg in 3.2 t of xenon. The knowledge of the distribution of the $^{222}$Rn sources allowed us to selectively eliminate critical components in the course of the experiment. The predictions from the emanation measurements were compared to data of the $^{222}$Rn activity concentration in XENON1T. The final $^{222}$Rn activity concentration of (4.5 $pm$ 0.1) $mu$Bq/kg in the target of XENON1T is the lowest ever achieved in a xenon dark matter experiment.
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.
In this work, the $^{222}$Rn contamination mechanisms on acrylic surfaces have been investigated. $^{222}$Rn can represent a significant background source for low-background experiments, and acrylic is a suitable material for detector design thanks to its purity and transparency. Four acrylic samples have been exposed to a $^{222}$Rn rich environment for different time periods, being contaminated by $^{222}$Rn and its progenies. Subsequently, the time evolution of radiocontaminants activity on the samples has been evaluated with $alpha$ and $gamma$ measurements, highlighting the role of different decay modes in the contamination process. A detailed analysis of the alpha spectra allowed to quantify the implantation depth of the contaminants. Moreover, a study of both $alpha$ and $gamma$ measurements pointed out the $^{222}$Rn diffusion inside the samples.
JUNO is proposed to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and rich in many other neutrino topics. A prototype is designed and set up for better understanding sub-systems of future detector. The preliminary results show that its threshold reaches ~0.3MeV with trigger rate ~290 Hz on the ground with cosmic muon rate ~35 Hz. Aiming for a better detector understanding from PMT signal, three reconstruction algorithms are compared for PMT waveforms with different overshoot ratios, including charge integration, waveform fitting, and deconvolution. It is concluded that the three methods have similar performance on uncertainty and systematic bias while deconvolution algorithm is best to handle larger overshoot and the simplest charge integration could be considered with controlled overshoot for future fast preliminary reconstruction.
PROSPECT, the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, will use two segmented detectors positioned 7-20 m from the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to measure the U-235 antineutrino spectrum and perform a search for short-baseline oscillations as a signature of eV-scale sterile neutrinos. PROSPECT has developed Li-6 loaded liquid scintillator detectors for efficient identification of reactor antineutrinos and has measured reactor and cosmogenic backgrounds in the HFIR reactor building. Multiple test detectors have been built, operated, and characterized at HFIR and elsewhere to understand the optical performance of the scintillator and pulse-shape discrimination capabilities for enhanced background rejection. The results from this R&D effort are discussed, in the context of the design and physics potential of PROSPECT.
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