Eur. Phys. J. C (2017) 77: 358
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-4902-x

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Online Rn removal by cryogenic distillation in the XENON100 experiment

¹ Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
² Nikhef and the University of Amsterdam, Science Park, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
³ INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy
⁴ Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Bologna and INFN-Bologna, Bologna, Italy
⁵ Institut für Physik & Exzellenzcluster PRISMA, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
⁷ New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
⁸ Physik-Institut, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
⁹ Department of Physics, Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, Stockholm, Sweden
¹⁰ Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
¹¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
¹² Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
¹³ Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, 79104, Freiburg, Germany
¹⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
¹⁵ SUBATECH, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, CNRS/In2p3, Université de Nantes, Nantes, France
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
¹⁷ Institut für Kernphysik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany
¹⁸ INFN-Torino and Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, Turin, Italy
¹⁹ Department of Physics and Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
²⁰ Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
²¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
²² LPNHE, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, Paris, 75252, France
²³ Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany

^* e-mail: stefan.bruenner@mpi-hd.mpg.de
^** e-mail: michaelmurra@wwu.de

Received: 23 February 2017
Accepted: 7 May 2017
Published online: 30 May 2017

Abstract

We describe the purification of xenon from traces of the radioactive noble gas radon using a cryogenic distillation column. The distillation column was integrated into the gas purification loop of the XENON100 detector for online radon removal. This enabled us to significantly reduce the constant Rn background originating from radon emanation. After inserting an auxiliary Rn emanation source in the gas loop, we determined a radon reduction factor of (95% C.L.) for the distillation column by monitoring the Rn activity concentration inside the XENON100 detector.