A novel ^83mKr tracer method for characterizing xenon gas and cryogenic distillation systems

The radioactive isomer ^83mKr, has many properties that make it very useful for various applications. Its low energy decay products, like conversion, shake-off and Auger electrons as well as X- and γ-rays are used for calibration purposes in neutrino mass experiments and direct dark matter detection experiments. Thanks to the short half-life of 1.83 h and the decay to the ground state ⁸³Kr, one does not risk contamination of any low-background experiment with long-lived radionuclides. In this paper, we present a new approach, using ^83mKr as a radioactive tracer in noble gases. A method of doping ^83mKr, into xenon gas and its detection, using special custom-made detectors, based on a photomultiplier tube, is described. Two applications of this method are presented: firstly, it can be used to characterize the particle flow inside of gas routing systems and determine the circulation speed of gas particles inside of a gas purification system for xenon. Secondly, it is used for rapid estimating of the separation performance of a distillation system.