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Abstract. The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) would show that lepton number is violated, reveal that neutrinos are Majorana particles, and provide information on neutrino mass. A discovery-capable experiment covering the inverted ordering region, with effective Majorana neutrino masses of 15 − 50 meV, will require a tonne-scale experiment with excellent energy resolution and extremely low backgrounds, at the level of ∼0.1 count /(FWHM·t·yr) in the region of the signal. The current generation 76 Ge experiments GERDA and the Majorana Demonstrator, utilizing high purity Germanium detectors with an intrinsic energy resolution of 0.12%, have achieved the lowest backgrounds by over an order of magnitude in the 0νββ signal region of all 0νββ experiments. Building on this success, the LEGEND collaboration has been formed to pursue a tonne-scale 76 Ge experiment. The collaboration aims to develop a phased 0νββ experimental program with discovery potential at a half-life approaching or at 10 28 years, using existing resources as appropriate to expedite physics results.

Light, MeV-scale dark matter (DM) is an exciting DM candidate that is undetectable by current experiments. A germanium (Ge) detector utilizing internal charge amplification for the charge carriers created by the ionization of impurities is a promising new technology with experimental sensitivity for detecting MeV-scale DM. We analyze the physics mechanisms of the signal formation, charge creation, charge internal amplification, and the projected sensitivity for directly detecting MeV-scale DM particles. We present a design for a novel Ge detector at helium temperature (∼ 4 K) enabling ionization of impurities from DM impacts. With large localized E-fields, the ionized excitations can be accelerated to kinetic energies larger than the Ge bandgap at which point they can create additional electron-hole pairs, producing intrinsic amplification to achieve an ultra-low energy threshold of ∼ 0.1 eV for detecting low-mass DM particles in the MeV scale. Correspondingly, such a Ge detector with 1 kg-year exposure will have high sensitivity to a DM-nucleon cross section of ∼ 5 × 10 −45 cm 2 at a DM mass of ∼ 10 MeV/c 2 and a DM-electron cross section of ∼ 5 × 10 −46 cm 2 at a DM mass of ∼ 1 MeV/c 2 .

A search for dark matter was conducted by looking for an annual modulation signal due to the Earth's rotation around the Sun using XMASS, a single phase liquid xenon detector. The data used for this analysis was 359.2 live days times 832 kg of exposure accumulated between November 2013 and March 2015. When we assume Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) dark matter elastically scattering on the target nuclei, the exclusion upper limit of the WIMP-nucleon cross section 4.3×10 −41 cm 2 at 8 GeV/c 2 was obtained and we exclude almost all the DAMA/LIBRA allowed region in the 6 to 16 GeV/c 2 range at ∼10 −40 cm 2 . The result of a simple modulation analysis, without assuming any specific dark matter model but including electron/γ events, showed a slight negative amplitude. The p-values obtained with two independent analyses are 0.014 and 0.068 for null hypothesis, respectively. we obtained 90% C.L. upper bounds that can be used to test various models. This is the first extensive annual modulation search probing this region with an exposure comparable to DAMA/LIBRA.

A: The characterization of detectors fabricated from home-grown crystals is the most direct way to study crystal properties. We fabricated planar detectors from high-purity germanium (HPGe) crystals grown at the University of South Dakota (USD). In the fabrication process, a HPGe crystal slice cut from a USD-grown crystal was coated with a high resistivity thin film of amorphous Ge (a-Ge) followed by depositing a thin layer of aluminum on top of the a-Ge film to define the physical area of the contacts. We investigated the detector performance including the I-V characteristics, C-V characteristics and spectroscopy measurements for a few detectors. The results document the good quality of the USD-grown crystals and electrical contacts. K: amorphorous germanium contacts, planar germanium detectors, leakage current, gamma ray spectroscopy 1Corresponding author.

We report on the technical design and expected performance of a 592 kg heavy-water-Cherenkov detector to measure the absolute neutrino flux from the pion-decay-at-rest neutrino source at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The detector will be located roughly 20 m from the SNS target and will measure the neutrino flux with better than 5 % statistical uncertainty in 2 years. This heavy-water detector will serve as the first module of a two-module detector system to ultimately measure the neutrino flux to 2-3 % at both the First Target Station and the planned Second Target Station of the SNS. This detector will significantly reduce a dominant systematic uncertainty for neutrino cross-section measurements at the SNS, increasing the sensitivity of searches for new physics.

Charge trapping degrades the energy resolution of germanium (Ge) detectors, which require increased experimental sensitivity in searching for dark matter and neutrinoless double-beta decay. We investigate the charge trapping processes utilizing nine planar detectors fabricated from USD-grown crystals with well-known net impurity levels. The charge collection efficiency as a function of charge trapping length is derived from the Shockley–Ramo theorem. Furthermore, we develop a model that correlates the energy resolution with the charge collection efficiency. This model is then applied to the experimental data. As a result, charge collection efficiency and charge trapping length are determined accordingly. Utilizing the Lax model (further developed by CDMS collaborators), the absolute impurity levels are determined for nine detectors. The knowledge of these parameters when combined with other traits such as the Fano factor serve as a reliable indicator of the intrinsic nature of charge trapping within the crystals. We demonstrate that electron trapping is more severe than hole trapping in a p-type detector and the charge collection efficiency depends on the absolute impurity level of the Ge crystal when an adequate bias voltage is applied to the detector. Negligible charge trapping is found when the absolute impurity level is less than 1.0 × 1011 cm−3 for collecting electrons and 2.0 × 1011 cm−3 for collecting holes.

Germanium (Ge) detectors with ability of measuring a single electron-hole (e-h) pair are needed in searching for light dark matter (LDM) down to the MeV scale. We investigate the feasibility of Ge detectors with amorphous-Ge (a-Ge) contacts to achieve the sensitivity of measuring a single e-h pair, which requires extremely low leakage current. Three Ge detectors with a-Ge contacts are used to study the charge barrier height for blocking electrons and holes. Using the measured bulk leakage current and the Döhler-Brodsky model, we obtain the values for charge barrier height and the density of localized energy states near the Fermi energy level for the top and bottom contacts, respectively. We predict that the bulk leakage current is extremely small and can be neglected at helium temperature (∼4 K). Thus, Ge detectors with a-Ge contacts possess the potential to measure a single e-h pair for detecting LDM particles.