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Abstract

The goal of the KArlsruhe TRItrium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is the determination of the effective electron antineutrino mass with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c² at 90 % C.L.. This goal can only be achieved with a very low background level in the order of 10 mcps in the detector region of interest. A possible background source are -alpha-decays on the inner surface of the KATRIN Main Spectrometer. Rydberg atoms, produced in sputtering processes accompanying the alpha -decays, are not influenced by electric or magnetic fields and freely propagate inside the vacuum of the Main Spectrometer. Here, they can be ionized by thermal radiation and the released electrons directly contribute to the KATRIN background. Two alpha-sources, ²²³Ra and ²²⁸Th, were installed at the Main Spectrometer with the purpose of temporarily increasing the background in order to study -decay induced background processes. In this paper, we present a possible background generation mechanism and measurements performed with these two radioactive sources. Our results show a clear correlation between -activity on the inner spectrometer surface and background from the volume of the spectrometer. Two key characteristics of the Main Spectrometer background – the dependency on the inner electrode offset potential, and the radial distribution – could be reproduced with this artificially induced background. These findings indicate a high contribution of alpha-decay induced events to the residual KATRIN background.