https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09870-7
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Direct comparison of PEN and TPB wavelength shifters in a liquid argon detector
1
INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67100, Assergi, AQ, Italy
2
Department of Physics, Carleton University, K1S 5B6, Ottawa, ON, Canada
3
AstroCeNT, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 00-614, Warsaw, Poland
4
INFN Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy
5
Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
6
Physics Department, Princeton University, 08544, Princeton, NJ, USA
7
Fondazione Bruno Kessler, 38123, Povo, Italy
8
Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications, 38123, Povo, Italy
9
Department of Physics, Royal Holloway University of London, TW20 0EX, Egham, UK
10
Physik Department, Technische Universität München, 80333, Munich, Germany
11
Faculty of Chemistry, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, Żwirki i Wigury 101, 02-089, Warsaw, Poland
12
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, Edinburgh, UK
13
Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California, 90095, Los Angeles, CA, USA
14
University of Amsterdam, Science Park, 1098 XG, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Received:
22
July
2021
Accepted:
23
November
2021
Published online:
13
December
2021
A large number of particle detectors employ liquid argon as their target material owing to its high scintillation yield and its ability to drift ionization charge over large distances. Scintillation light from argon is peaked at 128 nm and a wavelength shifter is required for its efficient detection. In this work, we directly compare the light yield achieved in two identical liquid argon chambers, one of which is equipped with polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) and the other with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) wavelength shifter. Both chambers are lined with enhanced specular reflectors and instrumented with SiPMs with a coverage fraction of approximately 1%, which represents a geometry comparable to the future large scale detectors. We measured the light yield of the PEN chamber to be 39.4
0.4(stat)1.9(syst)% of the yield of the TPB chamber. Using a Monte Carlo simulation this result is used to extract the wavelength shifting efficiency of PEN relative to TPB equal to 47.25.7%. This result paves the way for the use of easily available PEN foils as a wavelength shifter, which can substantially simplify the construction of future liquid argon detectors.
© The Author(s) 2021
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Funded by SCOAP3
