Design, performance, and analysis of a measurement of optical properties of antarctic ice below 400 nm

• Main Author: Brostean-Kaiser, Jannes
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2021
• Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics astro-ph.IM; Instrumentation and Detectors physics.ins-det; FOS Physical sciences; Antarctic; South Pole; Antarc*; South pole
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2107.11809; https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.11809

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, located at the geographic South Pole, is the world's largest neutrino telescope, instrumenting 1 km$^3$ of Antarctic ice with 5160 photosensors to detect Cherenkov light. For the IceCube Upgrade, to be deployed during the 2022-23 polar field season, and the enlarged detector IceCube-Gen2 several new optical sensor designs are under development. One of these optical sensors, the Wavelength-shifting Optical Module (WOM), uses wavelength-shifting and light-guiding techniques to measure Cherenkov photons in the UV range from 250 nm to 380 nm. In order to understand the potential gains from this new technology, a measurement of the scattering and absorption lengths of UV light was performed in the SPICEcore borehole at the South Pole during the winter seasons of 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. For this purpose, a calibration device with a UV light source and a detector using the wavelength shifting technology was developed. We present the design of the developed calibration device, its performance during the measurement campaigns, and the comparison of data to a Monte Carlo simulation. : Presented at the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2021). See arXiv:2107.06966 for all IceCube contributions