ABSTRACT
The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims at measuring the effective electron neutrino mass with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c2, i.e., improving on previous measurements by an order of magnitude. Neutrino mass data taking with KATRIN commenced in early 2019, and after only a few weeks of data recording, analysis of these data showed the success of KATRIN, improving on the known neutrino mass limit by a factor of about two. This success very much could be ascribed to the fact that most of the system components met, or even surpassed, the required specifications during long-term operation. Here, we report on the performance of the laser Raman (LARA) monitoring system which provides continuous high-precision information on the gas composition injected into the experiment's windowless gaseous tritium source (WGTS), specifically on its isotopic purity of tritium-one of the key parameters required in the derivation of the electron neutrino mass. The concentrations cx for all six hydrogen isotopologues were monitored simultaneously, with a measurement precision for individual components of the order 10-3 or better throughout the complete KATRIN data taking campaigns to date. From these, the tritium purity, εT, is derived with precision of <10-3 and trueness of <3 × 10-3, being within and surpassing the actual requirements for KATRIN, respectively.
ABSTRACT
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has certified a set of Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) that can be used to accurately determine the spectral sensitivity of Raman spectrometers. These solid-state reference sources offer benefits such as exact reproduction of Raman sampling geometry, simple implementation, and long-term stability. However, a serious drawback of these SRMs is that they are certified only in the backscattering (180°) configuration. In this study, we investigated if and how SRM 2242 (applicable for 532 nm) can be employed in a 90°-scattering geometry Raman system. We found that the measurement procedure needs to be modified to comply with the certified uncertainty provided by NIST. This requires a change in the SRM illumination that is possible only if we polish the side surfaces. In addition, we need to account for the polarization configuration of the Raman system by choosing the appropriate polarization of the excitation beam. On top of that, the spatial inhomogeneity of the luminescence light needs to be taken into account, as well as its behavior while traveling through the SRM bulk. Finally, we show in a round-robin test that the resulting uncertainty for the quantification of Raman spectra using the modified technique is on the order of ±1.5 percentage points.
