Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks - Detection Technology

Detection Technology

The DRIFT detector's target material is a 1 m3 volume of low pressure carbon disulfide (CS₂) gas. It is predicted that WIMPs will occasionally collide with the nucleus of a sulfur or carbon atom in the carbon disulfide gas causing the nucleus to recoil. An energetic recoiling nucleus will ionise gas particles creating a path of free electrons. These free electrons readily attach to the electronegative CS₂ molecules creating a track of CS₂- ions. A cathode at -34 kV in the center of the gas volume produces a static electric field that causes these negative ions to be drifted, whilst maintaining the track structure, to the MWPC planes at the edges of the detector.