Noble-gas liquid detectors: measurement of light diffusion and reflectivity on commonly adopted inner surface materials

Noble-gas liquids, such as xenon and argon, have been recently proposed as Vacuum Ultra Violet (VUV) light scintillators in some experiments dedicated to neutrino physics and dark matter research. Fundamental parameters for the photon detection are the diffusion coefficient and the reflectivity of the materials that surround the active volume of the apparatus. We carried out a investigation on the most commonly used materials at the scintillation wavelength λ ∼ 172 nm (close to the liquid xenon wavelength). The measurement has been performed at various incident angles by means of a collimated VUV source. The experimental set-up and the results obtained at room temperature with stainless steel, aluminum, peek and teflon targets are presented.