Byrnes N K, Dey E, Foss F W, Jones B J P, Madigan R, McDonald A D, Miller R L, Norman L R, Navarro K E, Nygren D R
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Dec 5;15(1):10595. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54872-0.
The imaging of individual Ba ions in high pressure xenon gas is one possible way to attain background-free sensitivity to neutrinoless double beta decay and hence establish the Majorana nature of the neutrino. In this paper we demonstrate selective single Ba ion imaging inside a high-pressure xenon gas environment. Ba ions chelated with molecular chemosensors are resolved at the gas-solid interface using a diffraction-limited imaging system with scan area of 1 × 1 cm located inside 10 bar of xenon gas. This form of microscopy represents key ingredient in the development of barium tagging for neutrinoless double beta decay searches in Xe. This also provides a new tool for studying the photophysics of fluorescent molecules and chemosensors at the solid-gas interface to enable bottom-up design of catalysts and sensors.
在高压氙气中对单个钡离子进行成像，是实现对无中微子双β衰变的无背景灵敏度从而确定中微子马约拉纳性质的一种可能途径。在本文中，我们展示了在高压氙气环境中对单个钡离子进行选择性成像。使用位于10巴氙气中的扫描面积为1×1平方厘米的衍射极限成像系统，在气固界面分辨出与分子化学传感器螯合的钡离子。这种显微镜形式是开发用于在氙中搜索无中微子双β衰变的钡标记的关键要素。这也为研究固气界面处荧光分子和化学传感器的光物理性质提供了一种新工具，以实现催化剂和传感器的自下而上设计。
