SPECIAL ISSUE – Technologies of the Borexino Experiment; Editor: Gianpaolo BelliniNo Access

Analysis of radioactive trace impurities with μBq-sensitivity in Borexino

Hardy Simgen

Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

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Gerd Heusser

Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

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Matthias Laubenstein

Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, S.S. 17 BIS km. 18.910, 67010 Assergi/L'Aquila, Italy

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, and

Grzegorz Zuzel

M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Reymonta 4, PL-30-059 Kraków, Poland

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217751X14420093Cited by:9 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

BOREXINO has set new standards in the field of ultra-low background experiments. Such a success was only possible by a strict quality control program during the construction phase of the experiment. In this paper, we describe how construction materials and auxiliary systems of the BOREXINO detector were screened for their residual radioactivity with unprecedented high sensitivity. The highly sensitive assay techniques developed for this purpose were also used to validate the purity of water and nitrogen used in the experiment. Moreover, we report on the production of ²²²Rn-free nitrogen and synthetic air with very low ²²²Rn concentration as well as on the successful search for commercial nitrogen with a particularly low concentration of argon and krypton.

Keywords:

PACS: 07.75.+h, 26.65.+t, 29.40.-n

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