Metal-Doped Plastic Scintillator for Neutron Detection

The Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) is an experiment that looks for dark matter, specifically weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs) via nuclear recoils with germanium and silicon atoms. Currently, the SuperCDMS SNOLAB dark matter detector, the successor to SuperCDMS Soudan, is being developed for placement at the SNOLAB research facility in Canada. As the sensitivity of this detector is increased, the suppression of neutron backgrounds through the traditional methods of using highly radiopure materials and passive shielding becomes much more difficult. Single-scatter neutron events can produce nuclear recoils that are indistinguishable from WIMP interactions. These events can be detected by replacing some of the passive neutron shielding with an active neutron veto composed of a metal-loaded plastic scintillator.This research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)