Pulse-shape discrimination in the IGEX experiment

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 515; no. 3; pp. 634 - 643
• Main Authors: González, D., Morales, J., Cebrián, S., Garcı́a, E., Irastorza, I.G., Morales, A., Ortiz de Solórzano, A., Puimedón, J., Sarsa, M.L., Villar, J.A., Aalseth, C.E., Avignone, F.T., Brodzinski, R.L., Hensley, W.K., Miley, H.S., Reeves, J.H., Kirpichnikov, I.V., Vasenko, A.A., Klimenko, A.A., Osetrov, S.B., Smolnikov, A.A., Vasiliev, S.I., Pogosov, V.S., Tamanyan, A.G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 11.12.2003
• Subjects: Double-beta decay; Ge detectors; Neutrino mass; Pulse-shape discrimination; 29.90.+r; 14.60.Pq; Pulse-shape discrimination; Neutrino mass; 23.40.−s; Double-beta decay; Ge detectors; 29.40.Wk
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2003.06.008

The IGEX experiment has been operating enriched germanium detectors in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (Spain) in a search for the neutrinoless double decay of 76Ge. The implementation of pulse-shape discrimination techniques to reduce the radioactive background is described in detail. This analysis has been applied to a fraction of the IGEX data, leading to a rejection of ∼60% of their background, in the region of interest (from 2 to 2.5MeV), down to ∼0.09c/keVkgyr.