Graphene-based detectors for directional dark matter detection

• Published in: The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields Vol. 79; no. 7; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Author: Wang, Shang-Yung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2019; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Analysis; Astronomy; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Boron nitride; Dark matter; Dark matter (Astronomy); Detectors; Directional sensitivity; Elementary Particles; Graphene; Graphite; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; Heterostructures; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Molybdenum disulfide; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Regular Article - Theoretical Physics; Sensors; String Theory; Two dimensional materials
• ISSN: 1434-6044; 1434-6052
• DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7071-2

Dark matter detectors with directional sensitivity have the capability to distinguish dark matter induced nuclear recoils from isotropic backgrounds, thus providing a smoking gun signature for dark matter in the Galactic halo. Motivated by recent progress in graphene and two-dimensional materials research, we propose a novel class of directional dark matter detectors utilizing graphene-based van der Waals heterostructures. A conceptual design of the detector based on graphene/hexagonal boron nitride and graphene/molybdenum disulfide heterostructures is developed and analyzed. The proposed detector has modular scalability, keV-scale detection threshold, nanometer position resolution, sensitivity down to 10  GeV / c 2 dark matter mass, and intrinsic head-tail discrimination and background rejection capabilities.