Demonstration and Comparison of Photomultiplier Tubes at Liquid Argon Temperature

Liquified noble gases are widely used as a target in direct Dark Matter searches. Signals from scintillation in the liquid, following energy deposition from the recoil nuclei scattered by Dark Matter particles (e.g. WIMPs), should be recorded down to very low energies by photo-sensors suitably designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures. Liquid Argon based detectors for Dark Matter searches currently implement photomultiplier tubes for signal read-out. In the last few years PMTs with photocathodes operating down to liquid Argon temperatures (87 K) have been specially developed with increasing Quantum Efficiency characteristics. The most recent of these, Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. Mod. R11065 with peak QE up to about 35%, has been extensively tested within the R&D program of the WArP Collaboration. During these tests the Hamamatsu PMTs showed excellent performance and allowed obtaining a light yield around 7 phel/keV(ee) in a Liquid Argon detector with a photocathodic coverage in the 12% range, sufficient for detection of events down to few keV(ee) of energy deposition. This shows that this new type of PMT is suited for experimental applications, in particular for new direct Dark Matter searches with LAr-based experiments.