Chromatographic separation of radioactive noble gases from xenon
File(s)1605.03844v2.pdf (570.8 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment operates at the Sanford Underground Research Facility to detect nuclear recoils from the hypothetical Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) on a liquid xenon target. Liquid xenon typically contains trace amounts of the noble radioactive isotopes 85 Kr and 39 Ar that are not removed by the in situ gas purification system. The decays of these isotopes at concentrations typical of research-grade xenon would be a dominant background for a WIMP search experiment. To remove these impurities from the liquid xenon, a chromatographic separation system based on adsorption on activated charcoal was built. 400 kg of xenon was processed, reducing the average concentration of krypton from 130 ppb to 3.5 ppt as measured by a cold-trap assisted mass spectroscopy system. A 50 kg batch spiked to 0.001 g/g of krypton was processed twice and reduced to an upper limit of 0.2 ppt.
Date Issued
2017-10-31
Date Acceptance
2017-10-26
Citation
Astroparticle Physics, 2017, 97, pp.80-87
ISSN
0927-6505
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
80
End Page
87
Journal / Book Title
Astroparticle Physics
Volume
97
Copyright Statement
© 2017, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Subjects
physics.ins-det
0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences
0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle And Plasma Physics
Nuclear & Particles Physics
Publication Status
Published