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Measurement of the scintillation resolution in liquid xenon and its impact for future segmented calorimeters

C. Romo-Luque1,*, N. Salor-Iguiñiz2,1,†, J. M. Benlloch-Rodríguez2, R. Esteve3, R. J. Aliaga4, V. Álvarez3, F. Ballester3, R. Gadea3, J. Generowicz5 et al.

A. Laing5, A. Martínez1, F. Monrabal2,6, M. Querol1, M. Rappaport7, J. Rodríguez3, J. Rodríguez-Ponce1, S. Teruel-Pardo1, J. F. Toledo3, R. Torres-Curado3, P. Ferrario2,6,‡, V. Herrero3, and J. J. Gómez-Cadenas2,6

  • *Now at Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA.
  • †Contact author: nerea.salor@dipc.org
  • ‡Also at Instituto de Física Corpuscular, Spain; On leave.
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023138 – Published 11 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jycz-rqbj

Abstract

We report on a measurement of the energy resolution that can be attained in liquid xenon when recording only the scintillation light. Our setup is optimized to maximize light collection and uses state-of-the-art, high-PDE (photodetection efficiency), VUV-sensitive silicon photomultipliers. We find a value of 3.7%±0.4% at 511 keV, once saturation effects are corrected for, a result close to the Poissonian resolution that we expect in our setup (2.8%±0.4% at 511 keV). Our results in the intrinsic resolution (2.3%±0.8%) are compatible, within errors, at 511 keV, with those found by theoretical estimations that have been standing for the last 20 years, 1.8%. Our work opens possibilities for apparatus based on liquid xenon and using scintillation only. In particular, it suggests that modular scintillation detectors using liquid xenon can be very competitive as building blocks in segmented calorimeters, with applications to Positron Emission Tomography technology.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023138– Published 11 May, 2026
  • Received 30 November 2022
  • Accepted 15 April 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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