The PANCAKE Platform
PANCAKE's flat inner cryostat.
The PANCAKE facility is the world's largest liquid xenon test platform and located in the laboratory of the astroparticle physics group in Freiburg. Inside its cryostat with an internal diameter of 2.75 m, components for the next generation of liquid xenon experiments, such as the DARWIN or XLZD time projection chambers (TPCs) with cryogenic liquid xenon dark matter targets of 40t or larger, will be tested at their full scale. This is essential to ensure their successful operation and is of particular relevance for key-components such as the TPC electrodes.
The artice describes the PANCAKE facility, including its cryostat, cooling systems, xenon handling infrastructure, and its monitoring and instrumentation. Unusually for such a large cryostat, the inner vessel has a flat floor which allows the full diameter to be used with a modest amount of xenon. This approach is of interest for future large-scale experiments, where a standard torispherical head would require tonnes of additional xenon. The group's current xenon inventory of 400 kg allows a liquid depth of about 2 cm across the full-diameter inner cryostat vessel. We also describe the commissioning of the facility, which is now ready for component testing.
- PANCAKE: a large-diameter cryogenic test platform with a flat floor for next generation multi-tonne liquid xenon detectors
A. Brown, H. Fischer, R. Glade-Beucke, J. Grigat, F. Kuger, S. Lindemann, T. Luce, D. Masson, J. Müller, J. Reininghaus, M. Schumann, A. Stevens, F. Tönnies, F. Toschi
arXiv:2312.14785
