Speaker
Mr
Gabriele Piperno
(Sapienza University of Rome)
Description
Bolometric detectors are one of most promising techniques to search for neutrinoless double beta decay. They are calorimeters working at cryogenic temperatures, featuring low background and excellent energy resolution.
It has been demonstrated that the main source of residual background is due to α particles generated by natural radioactive contaminants of the detector materials. This background can be identified by detecting the light emitted by particles in their interaction in the bolometer, via scintillation or Cherenkov processes. Indeed α and β/γ events emit different amounts of light for the same energy released in the bolometer.
Due to the work temperature, the light detector typically is a second bolometer, generally a germanium thin disk.
The correct evaluation of the light amount and a low energy threshold for the light detector are of primary importance to improve the event discrimination, particularly when the amount of light is small. In this work a software algorithm to lower the energy threshold of bolometric light detectors is presented. This algorithm is applied to light detectors faced to two bolometers: a scintillating ZnMoO4 and a TeO2, used to search the neutrinoless double beta decay of Mo-100 and Te-130, respectively. This show an energy threshold lowering by a factor of 3. In particular we were able to discriminate for the first time α and β/γ interactions in TeO2, opening the possibility to improve the sensitivity of upcoming experiments.
Optional extended abstract
upcoming experiments.
Primary author
Mr
Gabriele Piperno
(Sapienza University of Rome)
