Direct detection of VUV and IR lights for dark matter search

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25610060
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Particle/Nuclear/Cosmic ray/Astro physics
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: YORITA Kohei 早稲田大学, 理工学術院, 准教授 (60530590)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: アルゴン蛍光 / 真空紫外光 / 赤外光 / VUV-MPPC / 暗黒物質探索

Outline of Final Research Achievements

For next-generation of direct matter search with argon, we investigated properties of near infrared light (IR) in gaseous Argon scintillation and also developed/tested the new type of MPPC, directly sensitive to vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) light (128nm) under cryogenic environment. Using alpha-ray source in the gaseous Ar of 1atm at room temperature, we observed the near-IR light in the range of 650nm~850nm from the Ar scintillation light to be about 50-60% relative to VUV light component. On the other hand a new type of MPPC has been developed by Hamamatsu Photonics and tested under cryogenic temperature (liquid Ar, 87K) at Waseda university. The direct photon detection efficiency (PDE) at 128nm is measured to be about 7% at over-voltage of 3V. Based on these new R&D results, a possible application to liquid Ar detector for dark matter search is investigated.

Free Research Field

素粒子実験