Imaging individual barium atoms in solid xenon for barium tagging in nEXO

Chambers C, Walton T, Fairbank D, Craycraft A, Yahne DR, Todd J, Iverson A, Fairbank W, Alamre A, Albert JB, Anton G, Arnquist IJ, Badhrees I, Barbeau PS, Beck D, Belov V, Bhatta T, Bourque F, Brodsky JP, Brown E, Brunner T, Burenkov A, Cao GF, Cao L, Cen WR, Charlebois SA, Chiu M, Cleveland B, Coon M, Côté M, Cree W, Dalmasson J, Daniels T, Darroch L, Daugherty SJ, Daughhetee J, Delaquis S, Der Mesrobian-Kabakian A, DeVoe R, Dilling J, Ding YY, Dolinski MJ, Dragone A, Echevers J, Fabris L, Farine J, Feyzbakhsh S, Fontaine R, Fudenberg D, Gallina G, Giacomini G, Gornea R, Gratta G, Hansen EV, Heffner M, Hoppe EW, Hößl J, House A, Hufschmidt P, Hughes M, Ito Y, Jamil A, Jessiman C, Jewell MJ, Jiang XS, Karelin A, Kaufman LJ, Kodroff D, Koffas T, Kravitz S, Krücken R, Kuchenkov A, Kumar KS, Lan Y, Larson A, Leonard DS, Li G, Li S, Li Z, Licciardi C, Lin YH, Lv P, MacLellan R, Michel T, Mong B, Moore DC, Murray K, Newby RJ, Ning Z, Njoya O, Nolet F, Nusair O, Odgers K, Odian A, Oriunno M, Orrell JL, Ortega GS, Ostrovskiy I, Overman CT, Parent S, Piepke A, Pocar A, Pratte JF, Qiu D, Radeka V, Raguzin E, Rao T, Rescia S, Retière F, Robinson A, Rossignol T, Rowson PC, Roy N, Saldanha R, Sangiorgio S, Schmidt S, Schneider J, Schubert A, Skarpaas K, Soma AK, St-Hilaire G, Stekhanov V, Stiegler T, Sun XL, Tarka M, Tolba T, Totev TI, Tsang R, Tsang T, Vachon F, Veenstra B, Veeraraghavan V, Visser G, Vuilleumier JL, Wagenpfeil M, Wang Q, Watkins J, Weber M, Wei W, Wen LJ, Wichoski U, Wrede G, Wu SX, Wu WH, Xia Q, Yang L, Yen YR, Zeldovich O, Zhang X, Zhao J, Zhou Y, Ziegler T (2019)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Book Volume: 569

Journal Issue: 7755

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1169-4

Abstract

Double-β-decay involves the simultaneous conversion of two neutrons into two protons, and the emission of two electrons and two neutrinos; the neutrinoless process, although not yet observed, is thought to involve the emission of the two electrons but no neutrinos. The search for neutrinoless-double-β-decay probes fundamental properties of neutrinos, including whether or not the neutrino and antineutrino are distinct particles. Double-β-decay detectors are large and expensive, so it is essential to achieve the highest possible sensitivity with each study, and removing spurious contributions (‘background’) from detected signals is crucial. In the nEXO neutrinoless-double-β-decay experiment, the identification, or ‘tagging’, of the ¹³⁶ Ba daughter atom resulting from the double-β decay of ¹³⁶ Xe provides a technique for discriminating background. The tagging scheme studied here uses a cryogenic probe to trap the barium atom in a solid xenon matrix, where the barium atom is tagged through fluorescence imaging. Here we demonstrate the imaging and counting of individual barium atoms in solid xenon by scanning a focused laser across a solid xenon matrix deposited on a sapphire window. When the laser irradiates an individual atom, the fluorescence persists for about 30 seconds before dropping abruptly to the background level—a clear confirmation of one-atom imaging. Following evaporation of a barium deposit, the residual barium fluorescence is 0.16 per cent or less. Our technique achieves the imaging of single atoms in a solid noble element, establishing the basic principle of barium tagging for nEXO.

Authors with CRIS profile

Additional Organisation(s)

Involved external institutions

Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory United States (USA) (US) Colorado State University United States (USA) (US) Carleton University Canada (CA) Indiana University United States (USA) (US) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory United States (USA) (US) Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) /Институт теоретической и экспериментальной физики Russian Federation (RU) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States (USA) (US) Université de Sherbrooke Canada (CA) University of South Dakota United States (USA) (US) McGill University Canada (CA) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) United States (USA) (US) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory United States (USA) (US) Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) / 中国科学院 China (CN) Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) / 中国科学院高能物理研究所 China (CN) Stanford University United States (USA) (US) Triumf Canada (CA) Drexel University United States (USA) (US) Laurentian University Canada (CA) Brookhaven National Laboratory United States (USA) (US) Stanford National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) United States (USA) (US) University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) United States (USA) (US) Oak Ridge National Laboratory United States (USA) (US) University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) United States (USA) (US) The University of Alabama United States (USA) (US) Yale University United States (USA) (US) State University of New York at Albany (UNY Albany / UAlbany) United States (USA) (US) Institute for Basic Science Korea, Republic of (KR) Universität Bern Switzerland (CH)

How to cite

APA:

Chambers, C., Walton, T., Fairbank, D., Craycraft, A., Yahne, D.R., Todd, J.,... Ziegler, T. (2019). Imaging individual barium atoms in solid xenon for barium tagging in nEXO. Nature, 569(7755). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1169-4

MLA:

Chambers, C., et al. "Imaging individual barium atoms in solid xenon for barium tagging in nEXO." Nature 569.7755 (2019).

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