Measurement of the ionization yield of nuclear recoils in liquid argon using a two-phase detector with electroluminescence gap

Abstract

A measurement of ionization yields in noble-gas liquids is relevant to the energy calibration of nuclear recoil detectors for dark matter search and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments. In this work we further study the ionization yield of nuclear recoils in liquid Ar, using a two-phase detector with an electroluminescence gap and DD neutron generator. The ionization yields of nuclear recoils in liquid Ar were measured at 233 keV and electric fields of 0.56 and 0.62 kV/cm; their values amounted to 5.9 $\pm$ 0.8 and 7.4 $\pm$ 1 e$^-$/keV, respectively. The characteristic dependences of the ionization yield on energy and electric field were determined, while comparing the results obtained to those at lower energies and higher fields.