Primary and secondary scintillation measurements in a xenon Gas Proportional Scintillation Counter

Understand

NEXT is a new experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay using a 100 kg radio-pure high-pressure gaseous xenon TPC.

• The detector requires excellent energy resolution, which can be achieved in a Xe TPC with electroluminescence readout.
• Hamamatsu R8520-06SEL photomultipliers are good candidates for the scintillation readout.
• The performance of this photomultiplier, used as VUV photosensor in a gas proportional scintillation counter, was investigated.