Description
I present the core results of my PhD research - recognized
with the SIF "Ettore Pancini" Prize for Nuclear and Subnuclear
Physics - on the development and characterization of highly radiopure
scintillating crystals for rare-event searches. At the DAMA
low-background facilities (LNGS), I conducted calibration campaigns,
data taking, and analyses with enriched 106CdWO4 and
next-generation Cs2ZrCl6 (and related A2MX6) scintillators
to search for double-beta decay modes in 106Cd and 94,96Zr. I will
discuss crystal selection and radiopurification; detector performances
(energy resolution, long-term stability), and analysis techniques
(PSD, time–amplitude analysis) that yielded new and more stringent
half-life limits in several decay channels. I will then outline how
these methods inform my current work within a national PRIN project
and the CUPID and GAIAS collaborations, highlighting ongoing detector
R&D, background mitigation, and sensitivity projections toward
next-generation searches.
