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arXiv · 1312.4735

Radioactive contamination of BaF2 crystal scintillator

O. G. Polischuk·P. Belli·R. Bernabei·F. Cappella·V. Caracciolo·R. Cerulli·A. Di Marco·F. A. Danevich·A. Incicchitti·D. V. Poda·V. I. Tretyak
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Abstract

Barium fluoride (BaF$_2$) crystal scintillators are promising detectors to search for double beta decay processes in $^{130}$Ba ($Q_{2{\beta}}$ = 2619(3) keV) and $^{132}$Ba ($Q_{2{\beta}}$ = 844(1) keV). The $^{130}$Ba isotope is of particular interest because of the indications on 2${\beta}$ decay found in two geochemical experiments. The radioactive contamination of BaF$_2$ scintillation crystal with mass of 1.714 kg was measured over 113.4 hours in a low-background DAMA/R&D set-up deep underground (3600 m w.e.) at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of INFN (LNGS, Italy). The half-life of $^{212}$Po (present in the crystal scintillator due to contamination by radium) was estimated as $T_{1/2}$ = 298.8 $\pm$ 0.8(stat.) $\pm$ 1.4(syst.) ns by analysis of the events pulse profiles.

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O. G. Polischuk, P. Belli, R. Bernabei, F. Cappella, V. Caracciolo, R. Cerulli, A. Di Marco, F. A. Danevich, A. Incicchitti, D. V. Poda, V. I. Tretyak. 2013-12-17. Radioactive contamination of BaF2 crystal scintillator. https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.4735

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