Detection of the primary scintillation light from dense Ar, Kr and Xe with novel photosensitive gaseous detectors

The detection of primary scintillation light in combination with the charge or secondary scintillation signals is an efficient technique in determining the events “t=0” as well as particle/photon separation in large mass TPC detectors filled with noble gases and/or condensed noble gases. m of this work is to demonstrate that costly photo-multipliers could be replaced by cheap novel photosensitive gaseous detectors: wire counters, GEMs or glass capillary plates coupled with CsI photocathodes. We have performed systematic measurements with Ar, Kr and Xe gases at pressures in the range of 1–50 atm as well as some preliminary measurements with liquid Xe and liquid Ar. With the gaseous detectors we have succeeded in detecting a scintillation light produced by 22 keV X-rays with an efficiency close to 100%. We also detected the scintillation light produced by β’s (5 keV deposit energy) with an efficiency close to 25%. sful detection of scintillation from 22 keV X-rays open new experimental possibilities not only for nTOF and ICARUS experiments, but also in others, such as WIMPʹs search through nuclear recoil emission.