| has gloss | eng: DEAP (Dark Matter Experiment using Argon Pulse-shape discrimination) is a direct dark matter search experiment using liquid argon as target material. DEAP utilizes background discrimination based on the characteristic scintillation pulse shape in argon. A first-generation detector (DEAP-1) with a 7 kg target mass has been operated at Queen's University to test the available pulse-shape discrimination at low recoil energies in liquid argon, and has been moved to SNOLAB in October 2007. Discrimination of beta and gamma events from nuclear recoils in the energy region of interest (near 20 keV of electron energy) is required to be better than 1 in 108 to sufficiently suppress backgrounds in the DEAP-1 detector. A larger detector with a 3600 kg active mass is planned for construction beginning in 2008, and will have sensitivity to WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-sections as low as 10−46 cm². |
