Quenching factor measurements of neon nuclei in neon gas

The NEWS-G collaboration uses spherical proportional counters (SPCs) to search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). In this paper, we report the first measurements of the nuclear quenching factor in neon gas at 2 bar using an SPC deployed in a neutron beam at the TUNL facility. The energy-dependence of the nuclear quenching factor is modeled using a simple power law: αEnrβ; we determine its parameters by simultaneously fitting the data collected with the detector over a range of energies. We measured the following parameters in Ne:CH4 at 2 bar: α=0.2801±0.0050 (fit) ±0.0045 (sys) and β=0.0867±0.020 (fit) ±0.006 (sys). Our measurements do not agree with expected values from SRIM or Lindhard theory. We demonstrated the feasibility of performing quenching factor measurements at sub-keV energies in gases using SPCs and a neutron beam.