Performance of a liquid xenon calorimeter cell

A test cell has been constructed containing liquid xenon as a scintillator, read out by silicon drift photodiodes. Results are presented from experiments with this cell in a test beam, with particular emphasis on the cells optical performance and the optical characteristics of liquid xenon at the scintillation wavelength (175 nm). Comparison of test beam results with Monte Carlo studies of the cell show the light attenuation length of liquid xenon to be ∝40 cm, and the photon yield to be 1.5±0.5x104 photons/MeV. Calculations of the optical characteristics of the photodiodes using a three layer model for the xenon-oxide-silicon interface are compared with measurements, and the quantum efficiency is shown to be high. Ways of improving the overall optical performance of the cell are shown, based upon calculations using the stratified layer model for both detectors and cell walls. (orig.)