Performance of a Single Ion Imaging Microscope in Noble Gas Environments for Barium Tagging

Single ion barium tagging is a technology that, if it can be demonstrated to work with high efficiency, could reduce the backgrounds in searches for neutrinoless double beta decay to negligible levels in ton- to multi-ton-scale systems. This talk will present progress toward a barium tagging technology for xenon gas detectors based on single molecule fluorescence imaging (SMFI). We will review the chemical and optical techniques that have been implemented to realize single ion sensing fluorescent sensors in high pressure gas environments by the NEXT collaboration. New results will be presented from experiments designed to demonstrate single barium ion capture and detection in dry noble gases.