8 research outputs found
Phonon Pulse Shape Discrimination in SuperCDMS Soudan
SuperCDMS is the next phase of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment,
which measures both phonon and charge signals generated by particle recoils
within a germanium target mass. Charge signals are employed both in the
definition of a fiducial volume and in the rejection of electron recoil
background events. Alternatively, phonons generated by the charge carriers can
also be used for the same two goals. This paper describes preliminary efforts
to observe and quantify these contributions to the phonon signal and then use
them to reject background events. A simple analysis using only one pulse shape
parameter shows bulk electron recoil vs. bulk nuclear recoil discrimination to
the level of 1:10^3 (limited by the statistics of the data), with little
degradation in discrimination ability down to at least 7 keV recoil energy.
Such phonon-only discrimination can provide a useful cross-check to the
standard discrimination methods, and it also points towards the potential of a
device optimized for a phonon-only measurement.Comment: Low Temperature Detector 14 conference proceedings, to be published
in a special issue of the Journal of Low Temperature Physic