Free electron lifetime achievements in Liquid Argon Imaging TPC

A key feature for the success of the Liquid Argon TPC technology is the industrial purification against electro-negative impurities, especially Oxygen and Nitrogen remnants, which have to be initially and continuously kept at an exceptional purity. New purification techniques have been applied to a 120 litres LAr-TPC test facility in the INFN-LNL laboratory. Through-going muon tracks have been used to monitor the LAr purity. The short path length used (30 cm) is compensated by the high accuracy in the observation of the specific ionization of cosmic rays muons at sea level. A free electron lifetime of (21.4+7.3-4.3) ms, namely > 15.8 ms at 90 % C.L. has been observed under stable conditions over several weeks, corresponding to about 15 ppt (part per trillion) of Oxygen equivalent. At 500 V/cm, where the electron speed is approximately of 1.5 mm/us, the free electron lifetime >15 ms corresponds to an attenuation <15 % for a drift path of 5 m, opening the way to reliable operation of LAr TPC for exceptionally long drift distances. The present technique of monitoring LAr purity with muon tracks is being extended to the much larger ICARUS-T600 detector (600 ton fiducial mass) now under commissioning at the INFN-LNGS underground laboratory, where a relativistic cosmic rays flux of about 1 muon/m2/hour is expected.