The Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) will search for double beta decays of
136Xe. We report the results of a systematic study of trace concentrations of radioactive impurities in a wide range of raw ...materials and finished parts considered for use in the construction of EXO-200, the first stage of the EXO experimental program. Analysis techniques employed, and described here, include direct gamma counting, alpha counting, neutron activation analysis, and high-sensitivity mass spectrometry.
Characterization of large area APDs for the EXO-200 detector Neilson, R.; LePort, F.; Pocar, A. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
09/2009, Letnik:
608, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO)-200 uses 468 large area avalanche photodiodes (LAAPDs) for detection of scintillation light in an ultra-low-background liquid xenon (LXe) detector. We describe ...initial measurements of dark noise, gain and response to xenon scintillation light of LAAPDs at temperatures from room temperature to 169
K—the temperature of liquid xenon. We also describe the individual characterization of more than 800 LAAPDs for selective installation in the EXO-200 detector.
We report the observation of two-neutrino double-beta decay in (136)Xe with T(1/2) = 2.11 ± 0.04(stat) ± 0.21(syst) × 10(21) yr. This second-order process, predicted by the standard model, has been ...observed for several nuclei but not for (136)Xe. The observed decay rate provides new input to matrix element calculations and to the search for the more interesting neutrinoless double-beta decay, the most sensitive probe for the existence of Majorana particles and the measurement of the neutrino mass scale.
Trace radioactive impurities in final construction materials for EXO-200 Leonard, D.S.; Auty, D.J.; Didberidze, T. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
11/2017, Letnik:
871, Številka:
C
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We report results from a systematic measurement campaign conducted to identify low radioactivity materials for the construction of the EXO-200 double beta decay experiment. Partial results from this ...campaign have already been reported in a 2008 paper by the EXO collaboration. Here we release the remaining data, collected since 2007, to the public. The data reported were obtained using a variety of analytic techniques. The measurement sensitivities are among the best in the field. Construction of the EXO-200 detector has been concluded, and Phase-I data was taken from 2011 to 2014. The detector’s extremely low background implicitly verifies the measurements and the analysis assumptions made during construction and reported in this paper.
EXO-200 is an experiment designed to search for double beta decay of super(136)Xe with a single-phase, liquid xenon detector. It uses an active mass of 110 kg of xenon enriched to 80.6% in the ...isotope 136 in an ultra-low background time projection chamber capable of simultaneous detection of ionization and scintillation. This paper describes the EXO-200 detector with particular attention to the most innovative aspects of the design that revolve around the reduction of backgrounds, the efficient use of the expensive isotopically enriched xenon, and the optimization of the energy resolution in a relatively large volume.