Speaker
Matthias Laubenstein
(LNGS)
Description
The LNGS ultra low background counting facility STELLA (SubTErranean Low Level Assay) is a service infrastructure located in the underground laboratories of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), devoted to highly sensitive radiopurity measurements and material screening for the experiments installed at the LNGS.
The lab is working at the frontier of ultra low-level radioactivity measurements. Its main core is the pool of about 10 high purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors used for gamma spectroscopy. The installations and experimental set-ups using ultra low background techniques will be described shortly.
Gamma spectroscopy is a very powerful tool that can be applied to many physics fields. Moreover, performing this technique in a deep underground laboratory using ultra low background equipment gives the unique opportunity of having almost background free measurements. This is very helpful for example when measuring tiny objects with small amounts of radioactivity. The most stunning examples that have been measured recently are on the one hand small meteorite specimens, and on the other hand activated materials that were exposed to neutrons and charged particles under extreme conditions close to the plasma in the JET facility. These examples will show how useful this application can be to physics fields other than Astroparticle physics.
