First measurement of the nuclear-recoil ionization yield in silicon at 100 eV

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Albakry, M F, Alkhatib, I, Alonso, D, Amaral, D W P, Aramaki, T, Arnquist, I J, I Ataee Langroudy, Azadbakht, E, Banik, S, Barbeau, P S, Bathurst, C, Bhattacharyya, R, Bunker, R, Calkins, R, Cartaro, C, Chaudhuri, M, Chen, R, Chott, N, Coombes, H, Das, S, Rios, M, Dharani, S, di Vacri, M L, Diamond, M D, Elwan, M, Fascione, E, Fritts, M, Gerbier, G, Germond, R, Ghaith, M, Golwala, S R, Hall, J, Hassan, N, Hines, B A, Hoppe, E W, Hsu, L, Huber, M E, Iyer, V, Kashyap, V K S, Kelsey, M H, Kubik, A, Kurinsky, N A, L Li, Liu, J, Liu, Y, Loer, B, E Lopez Asamar, MacFarlane, D B, Mahapatra, R, Mandic, V, Mayer, A J, H Meyer zu Theenhausen, Michaud, Michielin, E, Mirabolfathi, N, Mohanty, B, Nelson, J, Neog, H, Orrell, J L, Osborne, M D, Oser, S M, Page, W A, Pedreros, D S, Perna, L, Podviianiuk, R, Ponce, F, Pradeep, A, Rau, W, Reid, E, Ren, R, Reynolds, T, Roberts, A, Robinson, A E, Saab, T, Sadek, D, Sadoulet, B, Saikia, I, Sander, J, Schnee, R W, Scorza, S, Serfass, B, Poudel, S S, Sincavage, D J, Sinervo, P, Street, J, Thasrawala, F K, Toback, D, Verma, S, Villano, A N, B von Krosigk, Watkins, S L, Wen, O, Yellin, S, Young, B A, Yu, T C, Zatschler, S, Zaytsev, A, Zhang, E, Zheng, L, Zheng, Y
• Format: Paper Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 03.03.2023
• Subjects: Ionization; Physics - High Energy Physics - Experiment; Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Physics - Nuclear Experiment; Recoil; Response functions; Silicon
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2303.02196

We measured the nuclear--recoil ionization yield in silicon with a cryogenic phonon-sensitive gram-scale detector. Neutrons from a mono-energetic beam scatter off of the silicon nuclei at angles corresponding to energy depositions from 4\,keV down to 100\,eV, the lowest energy probed so far. The results show no sign of an ionization production threshold above 100\,eV. These results call for further investigation of the ionization yield theory and a comprehensive determination of the detector response function at energies below the keV scale.