Speaker
Description
The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is a model-independent measurement of the neutrino mass from the tritium $\beta$ decay spectrum, aiming for a sensitivity of $0.2 \frac{\mathrm{eV}}{\mathrm{c}^2}$ (90% C.L.). Electrons from the decay in the high-intensity windowless gaseous tritium source are analyzed in a high-resolution MAC-E (Magnetic Adiabatic Collimation combined with an Electrostatic) filter spectrometer and the resulting integrated energy spectrum is recorded with the focal plane detector.
The Condensed Krypton Source (CKrS) has been developed as a source for absolute energy calibration, monitoring and determination of the transmission function of the spectrometer. It utilizes nearly mono-energetic conversion electrons from an adsorbed $83^{m}\mathrm{Kr}$ layer on a graphite substrate, which can be moved over the complete flux tube area at its position in the KATRIN beamline, allowing for per-pixel calibration of the focal plane detector. Important parameters like cleanliness of the substrate and the thickness of the frozen radioactive films are monitored in-situ by means of laser ellipsometry. An overview over the experimental setup and results from the commissioning measurement phase regarding stability and reproducibility of the conversion electron energies are shown. This work is supported under BMBF contract 05A17PM3.
