First measurement of the ionization yield of nuclear recoils in liquid argon.
This Letter details a measurement of the ionization yield (Q(y)) of 6.7 keV(40)Ar atoms stopping in a liquid argon detector. The Q(y) of 3.6-6.3 detected e(-)/keV, for applied electric fields in the range 240-2130 V/cm, is encouraging for the use of this detector medium to search for the signals from hypothetical dark matter particle interactions and from coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. A significant dependence of Q(y) on the applied electric field is observed and explained in the context of ion recombination.
Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
T H
TH
Joshi
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
S
S
Sangiorgio
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
A
A
Bernstein
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA and Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
M
M
Foxe
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
C
C
Hagmann
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
I
I
Jovanovic
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
K
K
Kazkaz
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
V
V
Mozin
Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
E B
EB
Norman
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
S V
SV
Pereverzev
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
F
F
Rebassoo
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
P
P
Sorensen