57 research outputs found
Development of Mo-containing scintillating bolometers for a high-sensitivity neutrinoless double-beta decay search
We report recent achievements in the development of scintillating bolometers to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of Mo. The presented results have been obtained in the framework of the LUMINEU, LUCIFER and EDELWEISS collaborations, and are now part of the R\&D activities towards CUPID (CUORE Update with Particle IDentification), a proposed next-generation double-beta decay experiment based on the CUORE experience. We have developed a technology for the production of large mass (1 kg), high optical quality, radiopure zinc and lithium molybdate crystal scintillators (ZnMoO and LiMoO, respectively) from deeply purified natural and Mo-enriched molybdenum. The procedure is applied for a routine production of enriched crystals. Furthermore, the technology of a single detector module consisting of a large-volume (~cm) ZnMoO and LiMoO scintillating bolometer has been established, demonstrating performance and radiopurity that are close to satisfy the demands of CUPID. In particular, the FWHM energy resolution of the detectors at 2615 keV --- near the -value of the double-beta transition of Mo (3034~keV) --- is 4--10~keV. The achieved rejection of -induced dominant background above 2.6~MeV is at the level of more than 99.9\%. The bulk activity of Th (Th) and Ra in the crystals is below 10 Bq/kg. Both crystallization and detector technologies favor LiMoO, which was selected as a main element for the realization of a CUPID demonstrator (CUPID-0/Mo) with 7 kg of Mo
New CUORICINO Results On the Way to CUORE
CUORE is a 0.75 ton experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of Te130 using 988 TeO2 bolometers. It aims at reaching a sensitivity on the effective neutrino mass of the order of few tens of meV. CUORICINO, a single CUORE tower running since 2003, plays an important role as a stand alone experiment and for developing the future CUORE setup. Present results already achieved and studies that are underway are here presented and discussed
Enriched TeO2 bolometers with active particle discrimination: Towards the CUPID experiment
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Enriched TeO2 bolometers with active particle discrimination: Towards the CUPID experiment
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
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