2015/10/31 by N. Casali, L. Dumoulin, A. Giuliani +16 · 32 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #BETA (programming language) #Bolometer #Cherenkov detector #Cherenkov radiation #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Detector #Double beta decay #Event (particle physics) #MAJORANA #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Nuclear physics #Optics #Particle physics #Physics #Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies #Sensitivity (control systems) #physics.ins-det
paper · pdf · open access · doi:10.1007/s10909-015-1404-9
published in Journal of Low Temperature Physics 184(1-2), 286-291 (Springer Science+Business Media)
arxiv created 2015/12/01 · openalex publication_date 2015/12/14 · arxiv updated 2016/06/10 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Bolometric detectors are excellent devices for the investigation of neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ). The observation of such decay would demonstrate the violation of lepton number, and at the same time it would necessarily imply that neutrinos have a Majorana character. The sensitivity of cryogenic detectors based on TeO2 is strongly limited by the alpha background in the region of interest for the 0νββ of 130Te. It has been demonstrated that particle discrimination in TeO2 bolometers is possible measuring the Cherenkov light produced by particle interactions. However an event-by-event discrimination with NTD-based light detectors has to be demonstrated. We will discuss the performance of a highly-sensitive light detector exploiting the Neganov-Luke effect for signal amplification. The detector, being operated with NTD-thermistor and coupled to a 750 g TeO2 crystal, shows the ability for an event-by-event identification of electron/gamma and alpha particles. The extremely low detector baseline noise, RMS 19 eV, demonstrates the possibility to enhance the sensitivity of TeO2-based 0νββ experiment to an unprecedented level.