Enriched TeO$_2$ bolometers with active particle discrimination: towards the CUPID experiment

Phys Lett B 2017 We present the performances of two 92% enriched $^{130}$TeO$_2$ crystals operated as thermal bolometers in view of a next generation experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{130}$Te. The crystals, 435 g each, show an energy resolution, evaluated at the 2615 keV...

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Main Authors Artusa, D. R, AvignoneIII, F. T, Beeman, J. W, Dafinei, I, Dumoulin, L, Ge, Z, Giuliani, A, Gotti, C, de Marcillac, P, Marnieros, S, Nagorny, S, Nisi, S, Nones, C, Norman, E. B, Novati, V, Olivieri, E, Orlandi, D, Pagnanini, L, Pattavina, L, Pessina, G, Pirro, S, Poda, D. V, Rusconi, C, Schäffner, K, Scielzo, N. D, Zhu, Y
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 10.10.2016
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Summary:Phys Lett B 2017 We present the performances of two 92% enriched $^{130}$TeO$_2$ crystals operated as thermal bolometers in view of a next generation experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{130}$Te. The crystals, 435 g each, show an energy resolution, evaluated at the 2615 keV $\gamma$-line of $^{208}$Tl, of 6.5 and 4.3 keV FWHM. The only observable internal radioactive contamination arises from $^{238}$U (15 and 8 $\mu$Bq/kg, respectively). The internal activity of the most problematic nuclei for neutrinoless double beta decay, $^{226}$Ra and $^{228}$Th, are both evaluated as $<$3.1 $\mu$Bq/kg for one crystal and $<$2.3 $\mu$Bq/kg for the second. Thanks to the readout of the weak Cherenkov light emitted by $\beta/\gamma$ particles by means of Neganov-Luke bolometric light detectors we were able to perform an event-by-event identification of $\beta/\gamma$ events with a 95% acceptance level, while establishing a rejection factor of 98.21% and 99.99% for $\alpha$ particles.
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1610.03513