The DarkSide-50 dark matter detector is a two-phase argon TPC installed at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso at the center of two nested veto detectors, a 30-tonne liquid scintillator neutron veto and a 1,000-tonne water Cherenkov muon veto. While operating in 2014 with a fill of argon extracted from the atmosphere, DarkSide-50 demonstrated its capability to operate in a background-free mode even in presence of the strong radioactive background due to the 39Ar isotope produced by cosmic rays.  In 2015 DarkSide was filled with 150 kg of argon extracted from deep underground reservoirs, which was demonstrated to be highly depleted in 39Ar. The combination of these two successes allowed the collaboration to conceive DarkSide-20k, a 20-tonne depleted argon detector just proposed for installation at LNGS, with a start of operations forecast within 2020. DarkSide-20k will be followed after five years at LNGS by Argo, a 300-tonne dark matter detector also capable of performing a set of very high precision measurement of several solar neutrino sources.
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Cristiano Galbiati
Princeton University & INFN