$$^{222}$$ 222 Rn  emanation measurements for the XENON1T experiment

Abstract

Abstract The selection of low-radioactive construction materials is of utmost importance for the success of low-energy rare event search experiments. Besides radioactive contaminants in the bulk, the emanation of radioactive radon atoms from material surfaces attains increasing relevance in the effort to further reduce the background of such experiments. In this work, we present the $$^{222}$$ 222 Rn emanation measurements performed for the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Together with the bulk impurity screening campaign, the results enabled us to select the radio-purest construction materials, targeting a $$^{222}$$ 222 Rn activity concentration of $$10\,\mathrm{\,}\upmu \mathrm{Bq}/\mathrm{kg}$$ 10 μ Bq / kg in $$3.2\,\mathrm{t}$$ 3.2 t of xenon. The knowledge of the distribution of the $$^{222}$$ 222 Rn sources allowed us to selectively eliminate problematic components in the course of the experiment. The predictions from the emanation measurements were compared to data of the $$^{222}$$ 222 Rn activity concentration in XENON1T. The final $$^{222}$$ 222 Rn activity concentration of $$(4.5\pm 0.1)\,\mathrm{\,}\upmu \mathrm{Bq}/\mathrm{kg}$$ ( 4.5 ± 0.1 ) μ Bq / kg in the target of XENON1T is the lowest ever achieved in a xenon dark matter experiment.