Speaker
Dr
Thomas Brunner
(McGill and TRIUMF)
Description
The nEXO collaboration is developing a low-background detector to search for neutrinoless double beta decays in 5 tonnes of liquid xenon enriched in the isotope Xe-136. Both, 175 nm scintillation light and charge signals of events within the detector will be recorded to allow reconstruction of energy and position of each event. The nEXO collaboration identified Silicon Photon Multipliers (SiPMs) as the devices of choice for the detection of scintillation photons. Inside the detector, an area of about 4.5 m$^2$ has to be covered with SiPM devices with an overall light detection efficiency of more than 3%. This requires a SiPM dark-noise rate of less than 50 Hz/mm$^2$, a correlated avalanche rate of <0.2 and a photon-detection efficiency of more than 15% at 175 nm. This is required to achieve the anticipated energy resolution of =<1% with nEXO. Recent measurements of FBK SiPMs demonstrated their suitability for the application in nEXO. Integration of SiPMs into tiles of ~10x10 cm$^2$ area and larger is a focus of ongoing efforts. The development of the nEXO baseline concept with SiPMs is well advanced and results of the development will be presented.
Primary author
Dr
Thomas Brunner
(McGill and TRIUMF)
