A composite bolometer as a charged-particle spectrometer

Neutrino mass and low-temperature calorimetry

“…4.1 and 4.2, is the fact that the systematic errors with external sources, caused by source thickness, deflection and scattering from walls and collimators, and back scattering from the detector surface, can be avoided by embedding the radioactive source in the calorimeter, as we had envisaged for the measurement of the (anti)neutrino mass. [12] As noted above, this has now been done [42] in the case of the 17-keV neutrino mass search. More generally, the bolometer provides the advantage of being a windowless detector, so that the energy of the incident particles or quanta is not degraded.…”

“…We have described low-temperature calorimetry as a new high-resolution experimental method for particle (α, β, γ) spectrometry introduced by the NASA-Wisconsin group [18] for xray astronomy and by us and our colaborators at CERN, the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale [12], Göteborg, and CEN-Saclay, for neutrino mass measurements devoid of uncertainties in atomic surroundings effects on the beta spectrum. Our search for a possible 17-keV neutrino illustrates some of the advantages and disadvantages of the technique: A salient disadvantage is the present limitation in counting rate (∼ 10/s).…”

“…This we demonstrated in our first experiment with α particles. [12] Independently, there was an intense effort at NASA, in a collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, to make x-ray spectrometers based on calorimetry [18] to be flown eventually on space vehicles for x-ray astronomy. We describe the principles of the calorimeter and its use in a number of applications by us and by others, and illustrate one study with our recent search for the "17-keV neutrino", which adds to a number of others, by different techniques, a negative result, by now an accepted conclusion for its nonexistence.…”

Limits on Sensitivity of Large Silicon Bolometers for Solar Neutrino Detection

“…TECHNOLOGICAL ADvances have enabled several groups to detect single nuclear particles by bolometry (1)(2)(3). For example, x-rays or alpha particles have been detected with silicon (1) or diamond (2) bolometers, respectively, each weighing a tiny fraction of a gram.…”

“…For example, x-rays or alpha particles have been detected with silicon (1) or diamond (2) bolometers, respectively, each weighing a tiny fraction of a gram. The use of very large bolometers for detecting neutrinos from the sun and from other sources has been discussed (4,5), and several groups are developing bolometric (thermal) detectors with large mass (6,7).…”