Beyond the Standard Model of particle physics there exists a form of matter, which seems to be dark in all interaction channels but in its gravitational influence. The nature of this major constituent of the universe is still not understood. The assumption that it is made up of particles which can possibly leave a trace in any detection channel is an established concept since decades.

Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the promising candidates for dark matter constituents. The hunt for a direct detection of a WIMP scattering off a target nucleus on earth is ongoing and pursued with larger efforts than ever before. Among different experiments, the dual-phase xenon time projection chambers are the most sensitive detectors for scatterings between WIMPs above a few GeV/c^2 and normal matter. The XENON1T experiment located at LNGS is such a detector. Using an exposure of one (tonne x yr) a null-result was obtained and this way the parameter space was probed down to a minimum of 4.1 x 10^(-47) cm^2 for a 30 GeV/c^2 WIMP at 90% C.L. A crucial aspect behind its sensitivity is the mitigation and understanding of background sources mimicking a WIMP signal. Notably, the rate of electronic recoils in the detector (82^(+5)_(−3) (sys.) ± 3 (stat)) events/(tonne×yr×keV) is the lowest achieved in any dark matter detector.

An introduction to the general direct detection principle will be given in this talk. Furthermore, the experimental picture of direct dark matter search will be introduced with a focus on the results from the XENON1T experiment. In addition, an outlook on recent efforts to open up for scenarios beyond the vanilla dark matter search, e.g. the interaction of WIMPS purely with pions within the nucleus, will be included. Finally, an insight into the possibilities a large liquid xenon low background detector offers for physics channels beyond the dark matter search will be given.