Abstract
Sensitivities of current directional dark matter search detectors using gas time projection chambers are now constrained by target mass. A ton-scale gas TPC detector will require large charge readout areas. We present a first demonstration of a novel ThGEM-Multiwire hybrid charge readout technology which combines the robust nature and high gas gain of Thick Gaseous Electron Multipliers with lower capacitive noise of a one-plane multiwire charge readout in SF6 target gas. Measurements performed with this hybrid detector show an ion drift velocity of 138±10 ms−1 in a reduced drift field E/N of 93 ×10−17 Vcm2 with an effective gas gain of 2470±160 in 20 Torr of pure SF6 target gas.
Highlights
Detection and characterization of dark matter (DM) - thought to be Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) [1,2,3] in a direction sensitive nuclear recoil detector with a suitable target material, is a major goal of the DM search community [4,5,6,7]
We present for the first time, a demonstration of a Thick Gaseous Electron Multipliers (ThGEMs)-Multiwire hybrid charge readout technology as a possible candidate for generation large area, low threshold Time Projection Chamber (TPC)-based directional dark matter detectors
Drift velocity and mobility of anions are independent of the effective gas gain so these observed plateau and rise in the detector gain should not affect our measurements. These results indicate that a gas gain of 2.5 × 103 is feasible with the ThGEM-multiwire hybrid setup in SF6 target gas
Summary
Detection and characterization of dark matter (DM) - thought to be Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) [1,2,3] in a direction sensitive nuclear recoil detector with a suitable target material, is a major goal of the DM search community [4,5,6,7]. The use of low pressure gas Time Projection Chamber (TPC) technology, in which ionization electrons from the nuclear recoil tracks are drifted to a charge readout plane and recorded for reconstruction, offers a route to achieving this goal This is with potentials for low energy threshold and low background operations, including active electron recoil discrimination in the low WIMP mass parameter space. We present for the first time, a demonstration of a ThGEM-Multiwire hybrid charge readout technology as a possible candidate for generation large area, low threshold TPC-based directional dark matter detectors In this hybrid configuration, field ionization of anions occur on the ThGEM while induced charge signals by the avalanche electrons are read out using wires coupled at a mm-scale distance behind the ThGEM
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