The KATRIN experiment is going to search for the average mass of the electron antineutrino with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c2. It uses a retardation spectrometer of MAC-E filter type to accurately measure the shape of the electron spectrum at the endpoi
nt of tritium beta decay. In order to achieve the planned sensitivity the transmission properties of the spectrometer have to be understood with high precision for all initial conditions. For this purpose an electron source has been developed that emits single electrons at adjustable total energy and adjustable emission angle. The emission is pointlike and can be moved across the full flux tube that is imaged onto the detector. Here, we demonstrate that this novel type of electron source can be used to investigate the transmission properties of a MAC-E filter in detail.
The method of direct neutrino mass determination based on the kinematics of tritium beta decay, which is adopted by the KATRIN experiment, makes use of a large, high-resolution electrostatic spectrometer with magnetic adiabatic collimation. In order
to target a sensitivity on the neutrino mass of 0.2 eV/c^2, a detailed understanding of the electromagnetic properties of the electron spectrometer is essential, requiring comprehensive calibration measurements with dedicated electron sources. In this paper we report on a prototype of a photoelectron source providing a narrow energy spread and angular selectivity. Both are key properties for the characterisation of the spectrometer. The angular selectivity is achieved by applying non-parallel strong electric and magnetic fields: Directly after being created, photoelectrons are accelerated rapidly and non-adiabatically by a strong electric field before adiabatic magnetic guiding takes over.
We report on spectroscopy and time-of-flight measurements using an 18 keV fast-pulsed photoelectron source of adjustable intensity, ranging from single photoelectrons per pulse to 5 photoelectrons per microsecond at pulse repetition rates of up to 10
kHz. Short pulses between 40 ns and 40 microseconds in length were produced by switching light emitting diodes with central output wavelengths of 265 nm and 257 nm, in the deep ultraviolet (or UV-C) regime, at kHz frequencies. Such photoelectron sources can be useful calibration devices for testing the properties of high-resolution electrostatic spectrometers, like the ones used in current neutrino mass searches.
Recent neutrino mass experiments at Mainz and Troitsk using tritium beta-decay have reached their sensitivity potential, yielding upper limits of about 2 eV/c^2 for the electron antineutrino mass. The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino experiment (KATRIN), d
esigned to reach a sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c^2 (90% C.L.), will improve the signal rate by a factor of about 100 with respect to previous experiments while maintaining the same low background level at an enhanced energy resolution of 0.93 eV of the spectrometer which is scaled up by a factor of 10 in linear dimensions. This low background rate can only be achieved by active and passive reduction of the background components induced by the spectrometer itself and in the detector region. Furthermore, sources of systematic errors such as energy losses inside the tritium source or fluctuations of the energy scale of the spectrometer need to be carefully controlled and analysed. An overview of KATRINs method to reduce the background rate and to determine the systematics as well as the sensitivity on the neutrino mass will be presented.
