Calibrated in-vacuum quantum efficiency system for metallic and III-V thin-film photocathodes

The construction and calibration of a high vacuum system for thin film growth and in situ quantum efficiency (QE) measurement are described. Surface cleaning by in situ argon ion sputtering and annealing is supported. The QE measurement is based on an external 265 nm LED and in situ positively biased collector grid. The system is applied to two metallic and two semiconducting photocathodes: polycrystalline silver and copper, and single crystal InP and InSb. Surface cleaning protocols are shown to have a dramatic effect on the QE for all of these materials. The maximum QE values achieved for clean InSb and InP are around 8 × 10−5, for Cu 9 × 10−5 and for Ag 2 × 10−4

Implementation of a local principal curves algorithm for neutrino interaction reconstruction in a liquid argon volume

A local principal curve algorithm has been implemented in three dimensions for automated track and shower reconstruction of neutrino interactions in a liquid argon time projection chamber. We present details of the algorithm and characterise its performance on simulated data sets.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures; typing correction to Eq 5, the definition of the local covariance matri

Electron-hadron shower discrimination in a liquid argon time projection chamber

By exploiting structural differences between electromagnetic and hadronic showers in a multivariate analysis we present an efficient Electron-Hadron discrimination algorithm for liquid argon time projection chambers, validated using Geant4 simulated data

The CRESST Experiment: Recent Results and Prospects

The CRESST experiment seeks hypothetical WIMP particles that could account for the bulk of dark matter in the Universe. The detectors are cryogenic calorimeters in which WIMPs would scatter elastically on nuclei, releasing phonons. The first phase of the experiment has successfully deployed several 262 g sapphire devices in the Gran Sasso underground laboratories. A main source of background has been identified as microscopic mechanical fracturing of the crystals, and has been eliminated, improving the background rate by up to three orders of magnitude at low energies, leaving a rate close to one count per day per kg and per keV above 10 keV recoil energy. This background now appears to be dominated by radioactivity, and future CRESST scintillating calorimeters which simultaneously measure light and phonons will allow rejection of a great part of it.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the CAPP2000 Conference, Verbier, Switzerland, July, 2000 (eds J. Garcia-Bellido, R. Durrer, and M. Shaposhnikov

The CRESST Dark Matter Search

We present first competitive results on WIMP dark matter using the phonon-light-detection technique. A particularly strong limit for WIMPs with coherent scattering results from selecting a region of the phonon-light plane corresponding to tungsten recoils. The observed count rate in the neutron band is compatible with the rate expected from neutron background. CRESST is presently being upgraded with a 66 channel SQUID readout system, a neutron shield and a muon veto system. This results in a significant improvement in sensitivity.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on the Identification and Detection of Dark Matter IDM 2004, Edinburgh, Sept. 2004, World Scientifi

Detection of the Natural Alpha Decay of Tungsten

The natural alpha decay of 180W has been unambiguously detected for the first time. The alpha peak is found in a (gamma,beta and neutron)-free background spectrum. This has been achieved by the simultaneous measurement of phonon and light signals with the CRESST cryogenic detectors. A half-life of T1/2 = (1.8 +- 0.2) x 10^18 y and an energy release of Q = (2516.4 +- 1.1 (stat.) +- 1.2 (sys.)) keV have been measured. New limits are also set on the half-lives of the other naturally occurring tungsten isotopes.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review C Revised versio

High-purity germanium detector ionization pulse shapes of nuclear recoils, gamma interactions and microphonism

Nuclear recoil measurements with high-purity Germanium detectors are very promising to directly detect dark matter candidates. The main background sources in such experiments are natural radioactivity and microphonic noise. Digital pulse shape analysis is an encouraging approach to reduce the background originating from the latter. To study the pulse shapes of nuclear recoil events we performed a neutron scattering experiment, which covered the ionization energy range from 20 to 80 keV. We have measured ionization efficiencies as well and found an excellent agreement with the theory of Lindhard. In a further experiment we measured pulse shapes of a radioactive gamma-source and found no difference to nuclear recoil pulse shapes. Pulse shapes originating from microphonics of a HPGe-detector are presented for the first time. A microphonic noise suppression method, crucial for dark matter direct detection experiments, can therefore be calibrated with pulse shapes from gamma-sources.Comment: 11 pages (latex) including 6 postscript figures and 2 table

New limits on dark--matter WIMPs from the Heidelberg--Moscow experiment

New results after 0.69 kg yr of measurement with an enriched 76Ge detector of the Heidelberg--Moscow experiment with an active mass of 2.758 kg are presented. An energy threshold of 9 keV and a background level of 0.042 counts/(kg d keV) in the energy region between 15 keV and 40 keV was reached.The derived limits on the WIMP--nucleon cross section are the most stringent limits on spin--independent interactions obtained to date by using essentially raw data without background subtraction.Comment: 8 pages (latex) including 5 postscript figures and 2 tables. To appear in Phys. Rev. D, 15. December 199

High sensitivity GEM experiment on double beta decay of 76-Ge

The GEM project is designed for the next generation 2 beta decay experiments with 76-Ge. One ton of ''naked'' HP Ge detectors (natural at the first GEM-I phase and enriched in 76-Ge to 86% at the second GEM-II stage) are operating in super-high purity liquid nitrogen contained in the Cu vacuum cryostat (sphere with diameter 5 m). The latest is placed in the water shield. Monte Carlo simulation evidently shows that sensitivity of the experiment (in terms of the T1/2 limit for neutrinoless 2 beta decay) is 10^27 yr with natural HP Ge crystals and 10^28 yr with enriched ones. These bounds corresponds to the restrictions on the neutrino mass less than 0.05 eV and 0.015 eV with natural and enriched detectors, respectively. Besides, the GEM-I set up could advance the current best limits on the existence of neutralinos - as dark matter candidates - by three order of magnitudes, and at the same time would be able to identify unambiguously the dark matter signal by detection of its seasonal modulation.Comment: LaTeX, 20 pages, 4 figure