Speaker
Description
Physics experiments searching for rare particle interactions, such as dark matter detection and neutrinoless double beta decay, require extremely low levels of intrinsic radioactivity in their detectors. Material screening for natural radioactivity is therefore critical to achieving the sensitivity needed for these searches. One of the dominant background sources in such experiments is radon gas, a radioactive noble gas produced in the decay chains of uranium and thorium. Radon can emanate from detector materials and surrounding environments, and its progeny can plate out onto detector surfaces, leading to long-lived radioactive contamination that mimics or obscures rare event signals.
This talk presents the development of a radon assay facility at the University of Windsor. The facility is based on electrostatic counters (ESCs), which detects radon by collecting its positively charged decay progeny onto a detector surface using an applied electric field. The subsequent alpha decays are then measured, allowing for highly sensitive quantification of radon activity.
This facility is designed to serve as a central radon assay hub in Canada, supporting low-background experiments across the astroparticle physics community. By employing state-of-the-art ESC radon detectors, the system aims to achieve ultra-low background sensitivity at the level of tens of microbecquerels (µBq), enabling precise screening of materials for next-generation rare event searches.
| emaraa@uwindsor.ca | |
| Affiliation | University of Windsor |
| Research Theme | Neutrinos |