Enriched TeO2 bolometers with active particle discrimination: Towards the CUPID experiment

Journal Article · Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physics Letters B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2017.02.011· OSTI ID:1343780

Artusa, D. R.; Avignone, III, F. T.; Beeman, J. W.; Dafinei, I.; Dumoulin, L.; Ge, Z.; Giuliani, A.; Gotti, C.; de Marcillac, P.; Marnieros, S.; Nagorny, S.; Nisi, S.; Nones, C.; Norman, E. B.; Novati, V.; Olivieri, E.; Orlandi, D.; Pagnanini, L.; Pattavina, L.; Pessina, G. ; Pirro, S. ; Poda, D. V.; Rusconi, C.; Schäffner, K.; Scielzo, N. D.; Zhu, Y.

We present the performances of two 92% enriched 130TeO2 crystals operated as thermal bolometers in view of a next generation experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te. The crystals, 435 g each, show an energy resolution, evaluated at the 2615 keV γ-line of 208Tl, of 6.5 and 4.3 keV FWHM. The only observable internal radioactive contamination arises from 238U (15 and 8 μBq/kg, respectively). The internal activity of the most problematic nuclei for neutrinoless double beta decay, 226Ra and 228Th, are both evaluated as <3.1 μBq/kg for one crystal and <2.3 μBq/kg for the second. Thanks to the readout of the weak Cherenkov light emitted by β/γ particles by means of Neganov–Luke bolometric light detectors we were able to perform an event-by-event identification of β/γ events with a 95% acceptance level, while establishing a rejection factor of 98.21% and 99.99% for α particles.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); The Regents of the Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Nuclear Science and Security Consortium
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: NA0000979; AC52-07NA27344; AC02-05CH11231; NA0003180
• OSTI ID: 1343780
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1378500; OSTI ID: 1379804; OSTI ID: 1405149
• Report Number(s): LLNL-JRNL-705527; S0370269317301016; PII: S0370269317301016
• Journal Information: Physics Letters B, Journal Name: Physics Letters B Vol. 767 Journal Issue: C; ISSN 0370-2693
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: Netherlands
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Double beta decay
Bolometers
Isotope enrichment
Cherenkov emission
Neganov–Luke effect
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
double beta decay
bolometers
isotope enrichment
Neganov-Luke effect