Measurement of work function in CF₄ gas

Abstract

CF4 gas is useful in many applications, especially as a drift gas in particle detection chambers. In order to make accurate measurements of incident particles the properties of the drift gas must be well understood. An important property of CF4 which is important for determining particle energy in detectors, the work function, is disputed and not well known. This thesis measures the work function of CF4 gas for use in the Dark Matter Time Projection Chamber as well as all experiments that use CF4 as a drift gas. This was accomplished by bombarding CF4 in a drift chamber and ionizing it, then collecting the ionized electrons on an anode. The work function was found to be 33.8 ± 0.4 eV. This value was then crosschecked against P10, which is well understood.