A novel Kr-83m tracer method for characterizing xenon gas and cryogenic distillation systems

作者：Rosendahl S^*; Bokeloh K; Brown E; Cristescu I; Fieguth A; Huhmann C; Lebeda O; Levy C; Murra M; Schneider S; V'enos D; Weinheimer C

来源：Journal of Instrumentation, 2014, 9(10): P10010.

DOI：10.1088/1748-0221/9/10/P10010

• Photon detectors for UV, visible and IR photons (gas)
• Gas systems and purification
• Scintillators, scintillation and light emission processes (solid, gas and liquid scintillators)
• Very low-energy charged particle detectors

The radioactive isomer Kr-83m has many properties that make it very useful for various applications. Its low energy decay products, like conversion, shake-off and Auger electrons as well as X-and gamma-rays are used for calibration purposes in neutrino mass experiments and direct dark matter detection experiments. Thanks to the short half-life of 1.83 h and the decay to the ground state Kr-83, one does not risk contamination of any low-background experiment with long-lived radionuclides. In this paper, we present a new approach, using (83m)Kras a radioactive tracer in noble gases. A method of doping Kr-83m into xenon gas and its detection, using special custom-made detectors, based on a photomultiplier tube, is described. Two applications of this method are presented: firstly, it can be used to characterize the particle flow inside of gas routing systems and determine the circulation speed of gas particles inside of a gas purification system for xenon. Secondly, it is used for rapid estimating of the separation performance of a distillation system.

• 出版日期2014-10