# 18th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors (LTD-18)

22-26 July 2019
Milano
Europe/Rome timezone

## Impact Ionization in SuperCDMS HVeV Detectors

25 Jul 2019, 17:45
1h 15m
Piazza Città di Lombardia (Milano)

### Piazza Città di Lombardia

#### Milano

Piazza Città di Lombardia, 1, 20124 Milano MI
Poster Low Temperature Detector Development and Physics

### Speaker

Francisco Ponce (Stanford University)

### Description

The existence of Dark Matter (DM) is supported by astronomical data and observations; however, to date there is no confirmed direct detection of DM. The SuperCDMS collaboration has expanded its capabilities with the development of the prototype HVeV detector. The HVeV detector uses a high voltage applied across the Si (or Ge) crystal to accelerate charges, which scatter off the crystal lattice generating additional phonons via the Neganov-Trofimov-Luke (NTL) effect. The total energy of the generated phonons is equal to the number of e$^-$h$^+$ pairs times the applied voltage, thus the detector response is quantized from the discrete e$^-$h$^+$ pair production. Unfortunately, the accelerated charges can (with some probability) free other loosely bound charges throughout the crystal, referred to as impact ionization. The observed energy from events that undergo impact ionization will not be quantized due to an incomplete NTL effect on the freed charges. These types of events will lie between the quantized peaks and appear as a flat high energy background. Here we discuss a technique for studying the effect of impact ionization on the SuperCDMS HVeV detector using a pulsed laser at ultra-low intensity.

Less than 5 years of experience since completion of Ph.D Y N

### Primary authors

Francisco Ponce (Stanford University) Dr Paul Brink (SLAC) Prof. Blas Cabrera (Stanford University) Mr Matthew Cherry (SLAC) Mr Caleb Fink (University of California, Berkeley) Dr Noah Kurinsky (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory) Dr William Page (University of California, Berkeley) Dr Richard Partridge (SLAC) Prof. Matt Pyle (University of California, Berkeley) Bernard Sadoulet (University of California at Berkeley) Bruno Serfass (UC Berkeley) Dr Chris Stanford (Stanford University) Mr Samuel Watkins (University of California, Berkeley) Dr Steven Yellin (Stanford University) Prof. Betty Young (Santa Clara University)