Testing of the nEXO Photon Readout Electronics at Room Temperature

One sensitive technique to determine the nature of the neutrino and any new physics that entails is to look for a neutrinoless double beta decay (0vββ). nEXO is a 5 ton liquid Xenon time projection chamber (TPC) operating at cryogenic temperatures is one of the most sensitive detectors being proposed for this search. Brookhaven National Laboratory is developing readout electronics for the photon detectors in nEXO, which will measure the scintillation flash produced when a double beta decay event occurs. To contribute to the development of the nEXO photon readout, we evaluated aspects of the design and performance of prototypes. The ability to test the Silicon PhotoMultipliers (SiPMs), which reconstruct the photon signal, at room temperature is one of the main objectives. In this talk, I will discuss the data taken with the prototype readout electronics at room temperature, where the noise reaches very high levels. Even though the dark currents are large, I will show that a warm test of the electronics highlights the feasibility of the proposed experiment.