Scintillating and particle discrimination properties of selected crystals for low-temperature bolometers: from LiF to BGO

Cerenkov emission as a positive tag of double beta decays in bolometric experiments

“…From the above, we calculate that the two electrons emit in total along their range about 125 Cerenkov photons in an energy interval from 2 eV (about 600 nm) to 3.5 eV (about 350 nm). This emission corresponds to an energy efficiency of about 140 eV/MeV, about two order of magnitude larger than the observed emission from alpha particles in TeO 2 crystals [13], though the latter results are not corrected for detection efficiency. Fluctuations around the above value are expected from Poisson statistics and from the sharing of the energy between the two electrons.…”

“…The exploitation of this techniques with TeO 2 is frustrated by the low luminescence of this crystal, which is also critically dependent on the quality of the crystal growth and on the choice of suitable dopants. In spite of these difficulties, the interest of the potential application has prompted for some dedicated R&D efforts [13][14][15][16]. As an alternative to these efforts, we suggest that standard TeO 2 crystals have suitable optical properties to act as excellent Cerenkov radiator.…”

Scintillating bolometers: A key for determining WIMP parameters

“…[62][63][64] It was the target material of the first scintillating bolometer ever constructed, 31 although in that experiment the light measurement was performed with a silicon photodiode, less sensitive than the semiconductor bolometers usually used in recent setups. 32 Scintillation at low temperature has been studied for pure and europium-activated targets, resulting in good scintillation at 1 K specially for doped samples, 65,66 although the radiopurity levels achieved in this case are usually worse. NaI, on the other hand, is one of the most widely used scintillators for γ spectroscopy due to its very high light yield.…”

The SciCryo Project and Cryogenic Scintillation of Al2O3 for Dark Matter

“…This test is relevant for future large-scale cryogenic dark matter experiments such as EURECA [13] that may combine both technologies. The scintillation-phonon detector is a 50 g Al 2 O 3 device previously characterized at surface level [8]. It has been installed in the low-background cryostat of the EDELWEISS II experiment at the Modane Underground Laboratory [14], after having been screened for radioactive background.…”

“…Sapphire, for instance, is attractive because scattering kinematics and cross section make it a good detector to control the fast neutron background. Moreover, it is well-established as a cryogenic phonon detector for dark matter [6,7], and certain samples have already been shown to scintillate at low temperature [8][9][10].…”