Matthew Winkelman with Dan Akerib and Tom Shutt
Charge Readout in Liquid Xenon for the LUX Dark Matter Experiment
The LUX experiment detects ionized particles that pass into the detector space. There they interact either with the electrons or nucleus depositing giving off electrons and photons. Occasionally particles scatter outside of the detector space, the goal of this project is to instrument this space to directly read the deposited charge. This will require designing a system to attract and gather the charge deposited into the Xenon and then amplify it by using a charge amp. This system will be tested in a prototype Xenon dark matter detector (Xed 1) using conditions similar to those present in the LUX experiment.