Investigation of Laser Driven Charge Clusters in Liquid Xenon

We report on progress made in testing the concept of a laser driven in-situ electron lifetime monitoring system for a large Liquid Xenon Time Projection Chamber (LXe TPC). In our setup we use a 150-ns, 262-nm UV pulse (4th harmonic of YLF laser) to generate electrons from a gold photocathode; the laser couples to the photocathode via a 600-$\mu$m optical fiber. The electrons drift 20-mm in a uniform electric field inside the LXe-filled cell. The drift velocity and effects of diffusion are measured. Our setup is able to distinguish photo-emission due to gold from the multi-photon ionization of LXe by different drift times; this allows us to infer the cross section of the two-photon ionization process in LXe. Finally, we discuss preliminary studies of the stability, quantum efficiency, and work function of gold in a Xe environment.