DREAMS AND REALITY OF USING NAKED Ge DETECTORS IN LIQUID NITROGEN, STATUS (LONG-TERM STABILITY) OF GENIUS-TF

Abstract

GENIUS-TF-II is a setup of six naked high purity Ge detectors (15 kg) in liquid nitrogen in Gran Sasso. It has been installed in October, 2004-after the first four naked Ge detectors had been installed on May 5, 2003 (GENIUS-TF-I). The GENIUS-Test-Facility (GENIUS-TF) is the first and up to now only setup ever testing the novel technique aiming at extreme background reduction in search for rare decays in particular underground. The goal of GENIUS-TF was to test some key operational parameters of the full GENIUS project in 1997. 1-6 Simultaneous physical goal was to search for the annual modulation of the Dark Matter signal. 12,25 After operation of GENIUS-TF over three years with finally six naked Ge detectors (15 kg) in liquid nitrogen in Gran Sasso we realize serious problems for realization of a full-size GENIUS-like experiment: 1. Background from 222 Rn diffusing into the setup, on a level far beyond the expectation. 2. Limited long-term stability of naked detectors in liquid nitrogen as result of increasing leakage current. None of the six detectors is running after three years with the nominal leakage current. Three of the six detectors do not work any more at all. The results of our three years of investigation of the long-term stability casts serious doubt on the possibility to perform a full GENIUS projector its copies GERDA or CAMEO/GEM.