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Accurate calibration of the laser Raman system for the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment

Magnus Schlösser, Simone Rupp, Hendrik Seitz, Sebastian Fischer, Beate Bornschein, Tim M James, Helmut Telle, Timothy James

Journal of Molecular Structure

Swansea University Authors: Helmut Telle, Timothy James

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.molstruc.2012.11.022

Abstract

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims to measure the neutrino mass via high-precision electron spectroscopy of the tritium beta-decay with a sensitivity of m<sub>nu</sub> = 200meV/c<super>2</super> (90%C.L.). This can only be achieved if systematic uncertain...

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Published in: Journal of Molecular Structure
ISSN: 0022-2860
Published: 2013
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa14494
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Abstract: The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims to measure the neutrino mass via high-precision electron spectroscopy of the tritium beta-decay with a sensitivity of m<sub>nu</sub> = 200meV/c<super>2</super> (90%C.L.). This can only be achieved if systematic uncertainties are minimized. An important parameter is the isotopic composition of the tritium gas used as the gaseous beta-electron source, which is measured inline by Raman spectroscopy. The KATRIN experiment requires a measurement trueness of better than 10% of said composition; to achieve this, accurate calibration of the Raman system for all hydrogen isotopologues (H<sub>2</sub>; HD; D<sub>2</sub>; HT; DT; T<sub>2</sub>) is required. Here we present two independent calibration methods, namely (i) a gas sampling technique, which promises high accuracy, but which is difficult to apply to tritiated species; and (ii) an approach via theoretical Raman signals (theoretical intensities plus spectral sensitivity), which in principle includes all six isotopologues. For the latter method we incorporated ab-initio off-diagonal matrix elements of the polarizability from the literature; these have been verified by depolarization measurements. The system’s spectral sensitivity was determined by a NIST-traceable SRM2242 luminescence standard. Both methods exhibited their individual merits and difficulties, but in cross calibration proved to be successful: a comparison for the non-radioactive isotopologues (H<sub>2</sub>; HD; D<sub>2</sub>) yielded agreement to better than 2% for the relative Raman response function. This is within the estimated (dominant) uncertainty of the theoretical Raman signal approach of about 3%. Therefore, one can be confident that, when using this approach, the trueness requirement of 10% for the KATRIN-relevant species (T<sub>2</sub>; DT; D<sub>2</sub> and HT) will in all likelihood be exceeded.
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering

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