Simultaneous scintillation light and charge readout of a pure argon filled Spherical Proportional Counter

R. Bouet (1) , J. Busto (2) , V. Cecchini (1, 3) , C. Cerna (1) , A. Dastgheibi-Fard (4) , F. Druillole (1) , C. Jollet (1) , P. Hellmuth (1) , I. Katsioulas , P. Knights (5) , I. Giomataris (5) , M. Gros (5) , Pascal Lautridou (6) , A. Meregaglia (1) , X.F. Navick (5) , T. Neep , K. Nikolopoulos , F. Perrot (1) , F. Piquemal (1) , M. Roche (1) , B. Thomas (1) , R. Ward , M. Zampaolo (4)

1 CENBG - Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan
2 CPPM - Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille
3 SUBATECH - Laboratoire de physique subatomique et des technologies associées
4 LSM - UMR 6417 - Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane
5 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
6 SUBATECH - Laboratoire de physique subatomique et des technologies associées

The possible use of a Spherical Proportional Counter for the search of neutrinoless double beta decay is investigated in the R2D2 R&D project. Dual charge and scintillation light readout may improve the detector performance. Tests were carried out with pure argon at 1.1 bar using a 6 × 6 mm${}^2$ silicon photomultiplier. Scintillation light was used for the first time to trigger in a spherical proportional counter. The measured drift time is in excellent agreement with the expectations from simulations. Furthermore the light signal emitted during the avalanche development exhibits features that could be exploited for event characterization.

Mots clés: Spherical TPC; Neutrino; Neutrinoless double beta decay; Scintillation; double-beta decay: (0neutrino); performance; photomultiplier: silicon; charge: readout; scintillation counter; argon; time projection chamber; numerical calculations

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]

R. Bouet, J. Busto, V. Cecchini, C. Cerna, A. Dastgheibi-Fard, et al.. Simultaneous scintillation light and charge readout of a pure argon filled Spherical Proportional Counter. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2022, 1028, pp.166382. ⟨10.1016/j.nima.2022.166382⟩. ⟨hal-03566493⟩