| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The major background source in the underground experiments, such as a search for the double beta decay, is recognized as the radio-active materials, specifically the daughter nucleus of toron, ^<208>T1, in the environment as well as the detector itself. To measure such contamination, a large volume electrostatic collection type detector having radon sensitivity, or the detection limit, of the order of 10 mBq/m^3 is commonly used. In case, for example, of an experimental configuration utilizing a drift chamber, the measurement of radio-active contamination in the filling gas is crucial the present detector seems to be useful in the estimate of minute amount of the radon as well as the toron in the gas. To understand such type of the detector, we have studied a general behavior of the 1 litter volume detector. Its construction was a SUS container capable to let the external air from the bottom and a PIN photodiode held at a negative potential was mounted at the top of the inside containe
… More
r. The radio-active ions, such as polonium and bismuth, are collected to the diode surface and their alpha decays are detected as dearly separated several peaks.
In this measurement the detector was first housed in a large acrylic vessel, and next was isolated from the external air, and the change of counting rate with time was observed Since our measurements are for the natural radon and a weak toron source of the "mantle", the observed half lives to specify the daughter nuclei were less accurate compared with the case for large detector mentioned above and a prepared source. The precision of our measurement was at 3〜4 % level. However, the present detector would be much easier to handle to get various kinds of information related to its performance. The daughter nuclei such as ^<218>Po is likely to ionize positive by reacting with oxygen. These ions also tend to adhere the water molecules and as a result the ions may be lost before being detected due to the lifetime effect. Such behavior was studied in the past by Chu and Hopke, and we have considered this by the decrease in mobility of the ions. Our measurement of the temperature dependence of alpha particle yield was in good agreement with the expected behavior as well as the past result.
Although the present result was only for the water vapor, about the same argument may hold for alcoholic vapor, which is a common quenching gas in the drift chamber. A more careful study will be needed for the thorium series contamination in the chamber gas to evaluate the beta decay of short lived ^<208>T1 nucleus. Another observation was for the environment of rare gases. We have performed this by using a mantle. The detection efficiency in argon gas environment was about 1/4 of the helium gas. This result was considered by a charge transfer collision of the ions with the argon gas atoms. The observation was in good agreement with this assumption. Less
|
