The CROSS experiment will search for neutrinoless
double-beta decay using a specific mechanical structure to hold
thermal detectors. The design of the structure was tuned to minimize
the background contribution, keeping an optimal detector
performance. A single module of the structure holds two
scintillating bolometers (with a crystal size of
45 × 45 × 45 mm and a Ge slab facing the crystal's
upper side) in the Cu frame, allowing for a modular construction of
a large-scale array. Two designs are released: the initial
Thick version contains around 15% of Cu over the crystal
mass (lithium molybdate, LMO), while this ratio is reduced to
∼ 6% in a finer (Slim) design. Both designs were tested
extensively at aboveground (IJCLab, France) and underground (LSC,
Spain) laboratories. In particular, at LSC we used a
pulse-tube-based CROSS facility to operate a 6-crystal array of LMOs
enriched/depleted in 100Mo. The tested LMOs show high
spectrometric performance in both designs; notably, the measured
energy resolution is 5–7 keV FWHM at 2615 keV γs, nearby
the Q-value of 100Mo (3034 keV). Due to the absence of a
reflective cavity around LMOs, a low scintillation signal is
detected by Ge bolometers: ∼ 0.3 keV (150 photons) for 1-MeV
γ(β) LMO-event. Despite that, an acceptable separation
between α and γ(β) events is achieved with most
devices. The highest efficiency is reached with light detectors in
the Thick design thanks to a lower baseline noise width
(0.05–0.09 keV RMS) when compared to that obtained in the
Slim version (0.10–0.35 keV RMS). Given the pivotal role of
bolometric photodetectors for particle identification and random
coincidences rejection, we will use the structure here described
with upgraded light detectors, featuring thermal signal
amplification via the Neganov-Trofimov-Luke effect, as also
demonstrated in the present work.