T-REX lab

One of the main objectives of the T-REX project has been to build and establish specialised infrastructure to develop, assemble, test and characterize gas detector and readouts in the University of Zaragoza, and to promote the connection to low background know-how of the group and the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc.The T-REX laboratory is the result of this effort. It has been implemented in two rooms amounting to about 100 m2 made available by the Vicerrectorado de Investigación of the Universidad de Zaragoza. The main characteristics of the laboratory are:

  • External huts to safely store gas bottles, and appropriate gas distribution lines connecting them to the different working points inside the lab space.
  • 10 different working points to test gas detector setups, with controlled pressure, flow and exhaust lines.
  • Gas mixer unit
  • Turbomolecular pumps
  • Mass spectrometer
  • Leak detector
  • Two laminar flow cabinets (one bench-type and a large size 3×3 m2 cabinet)
  • Gas recirculation system for operation with high purity Xe gas mixtures, with recirculation pump, UHV components, filters, and  meters.
  • General specialized gas & vacuum laboratory equipment: manometers, flowmeters, back-pressure, vacuum meters, general vacuum and gas consumables.
  • General specialized nuclear electronics modules (VME, NIM, power supply) and oscilloscopes.
  • Specific front-end data acquisition card for time projection chambers (based on the AFTER chip made at CEA/Saclay)
  • Generic and specific gas vessel for prototyping (see T-REX prototypes)

 

First hall of the T-REX lab, showing the doublé beta decay prototypes (most visible the NEXT-MM one) as well as working space with a generic MM test bench
First hall of the T-REX lab, showing the double beta decay prototypes (most visible the NEXT-MM and the high purity gas recirculation system one at the center of the picture) as well as working space (clean space on the right) and a generic MM test bench (on the left).

 

Second hall of the TREX-lab, showing the axion setup, the spherical TPC and the laminar flow cabined with the TREX-DM chamber
Second hall of the TREX-lab, showing generic test setup on the left, the axion prototype setup (CAST replica setup), the spherical TPC and the laminar flow cabined with the TREX-DM chamber (on the right)

In addition of the activities in the premises of the University, part of the work of TREX is done underground, in the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (LSC). As part of the Grupo de Investigación en Física Nuclear y Astropartículas (GIFNA), host group of the LSC, we have access to the underground space that is reserved at LSC for R&D activities of GIFNA: