https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-6810-8
Letter
Polyethylene naphthalate film as a wavelength shifter in liquid argon detectors
1
Department of Physics, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada
2
Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada
3
Department of Physics, Technische Universität München, 80333, Munich, Germany
* e-mail: mkuzniak@physics.carleton.ca
Received:
12
June
2018
Accepted:
26
March
2019
Published online:
30
March
2019
Liquid argon-based scintillation detectors are important for dark matter searches and neutrino physics. Argon scintillation light is in the vacuum ultraviolet region, making it hard to be detected by conventional means. Polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), an optically transparent thermoplastic polyester commercially available as large area sheets or rolls, is proposed as an alternative wavelength shifter to the commonly-used tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB). By combining the existing literature data and spectrometer measurements relative to TPB, we conclude that the fluorescence yield and timing of both materials may be very close. The evidence collected suggests that PEN is a suitable replacement for TPB in liquid argon neutrino detectors, and is also a promising candidate for dark matter detectors. Advantages of PEN are discussed in the context of scaling-up existing technologies to the next generation of very large ktonne-scale detectors. Its simplicity has a potential to facilitate such scale-ups, revolutionizing the field.
© The Author(s), 2019
