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.
Read more about this topic: Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks
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