Design and operation of ARGONTUBE: a 5 m long drift liquid argon TPC

Understand

The Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) is a prime type of detector for future large-mass neutrino observatories and proton decay searches.

• In this paper we present the design and operation, as well as experimental results from ARGONTUBE, a LArTPC being operated at the AEC-LHEP, University of Bern.
• The main goal of this detector is to prove the feasibility of charge drift over very long distances in liquid argon.
• Many other aspects of the LArTPC technology are also investigated, such as a voltage multiplier to generate high voltage in liquid argon (Greinacher circuit), a cryogenic purification system and the application of multi-photon ionization of liquid argon by a UV laser.