Directional Detection of Dark Matter Using Solid-State Quantum Sensing

Abstract

Next-generation dark matter (DM) detectors searching for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) will be sensitive to coherent scattering from solar neutrinos, demanding an efficient background-signal discrimination tool. Directional detectors improve sensitivity to WIMP DM despite the irreducible neutrino background. Widebandgap semiconductors offer a path to directional detection in a high-density target material. A detector of this type operates in a hybrid mode. The WIMP or neutrinoinduced nuclear recoil is detected using real-time charge, phonon, or photon collection. The directional signal, however, is imprinted as a durable sub-micron damage track in the lattice structure. This directional signal can be read out by a variety of atomic physics techniques, from point defect quantum sensing to x-ray microscopy. In this white paper, we present the detector principle and review the status of the experimental techniques required for directional readout of nuclear recoil tracks. Specifically, we focus on diamond as a target material; it is both a leading platform for emerging quantum technologies and a promising component of next-generation semiconductor electronics. Based on the development and demonstration of directional readout in diamond over the next decade, a future WIMP detector will leverage or motivate advances in multiple disciplines towards precision dark matter and neutrino physics.

Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier Dark Matter Direct Detection to the Neutrino Fog

“…The NEWS collaboration (based in Japan and Italy) is pursuing directional recoil detection in emulsions [124] and making good progress. Outside the particle physics community, quantum defects in wide-bandgap semiconductors have also been proposed to achieve directional sensitivity at solid-state densities [125][126][127]. The incident particle's direction would be stored as a durable, submicron track of crystal lattice damage, which could be mapped using solid-state quantum sensing methods.…”

Review on dark matter searches

“…• Crystal defect spectroscopy could be used as WIMP-induced NR in a diamond target would create an observable damage trail that alters the strain pattern. The large target mass of a solid-state detector would be combined with an ultra-fine spatial resolution (at nmscale) [120,121,122]. • In a DNA strand detector, DNA strands mounted onto a nm-thick gold foil could be severed by a recoiling gold atom kicked out by a WIMP; biological techniques could allow to identify position of each severing event [123,124].…”

Glueballs in a thermal squeezeout model

“…the neutrino scattering gives rise to a large background and novel search techniques are needed [86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93], see also refs. [94,95] for recent reviews.…”