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arXiv · 1704.01758

Development of $^{100}$Mo-containing scintillating bolometers for a high-sensitivity neutrinoless double-beta decay search

Abstract

This paper reports on the development of a technology involving $^{100}$Mo-enriched scintillating bolometers, compatible with the goals of CUPID, a proposed next-generation bolometric experiment to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Large mass ($\sim$1~kg), high optical quality, radiopure $^{100}$Mo-containing zinc and lithium molybdate crystals have been produced and used to develop high performance single detector modules based on 0.2--0.4~kg scintillating bolometers. In particular, the energy resolution of the lithium molybdate detectors near the $Q$-value of the double-beta transition of $^{100}$Mo (3034~keV) is 4--6~keV FWHM. The rejection of the $\alpha$-induced dominant background above 2.6~MeV is better than 8$\sigma$. Less than 10~$\mu$Bq/kg activity of $^{232}$Th ($^{228}$Th) and $^{226}$Ra in the crystals is ensured by boule recrystallization. The potential of $^{100}$Mo-enriched scintillating bolometers to perform high sensitivity double-beta decay searches has been demonstrated with only 10~kg$\times$d exposure: the two neutrino double-beta decay half-life of $^{100}$Mo has been measured with the up-to-date highest accuracy as $T_{1/2}$ = [6.90 $\pm$ 0.15(stat.) $\pm$ 0.37(syst.)] $\times$ 10$^{18}$~yr. Both crystallization and detector technologies favor lithium molybdate, which has been selected for the ongoing construction of the CUPID-0/Mo demonstrator, containing several kg of $^{100}$Mo.

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E. Armengaud, C. Augier, A. S. Barabash, J. W. Beeman, T. B. Bekker, F. Bellini, A. Benoît, L. Bergé, T. Bergmann, J. Billard, R. S. Boiko, A. Broniatowski, V. Brudanin, P. Camus, S. Capelli, L. Cardani, N. Casali, A. Cazes, M. Chapellier, F. Charlieux, D. M. Chernyak, M. de Combarieu, N. Coron, F. A. Danevich, I. Dafinei, M. De Jesus, L. Devoyon, S. Di Domizio, L. Dumoulin, K. Eitel, C. Enss, F. Ferroni, A. Fleischmann, N. Foerster, J. Gascon, L. Gastaldo, L. Gironi, A. Giuliani, V. D. Grigorieva, M. Gros, L. Hehn, S. Hervé, V. Humbert, N. V. Ivannikova, I. M. Ivanov, Y. Jin, A. Juillard, M. Kleifges, V. V. Kobychev, S. I. Konovalov, F. Koskas, V. Kozlov, H. Kraus, V. A. Kudryavtsev, M. Laubenstein, H. Le Sueur, M. Loidl, P. Magnier, E. P. Makarov, M. Mancuso, P. de Marcillac, S. Marnieros, C. Marrache-Kikuchi, S. Nagorny, X-F. Navick, M. O. Nikolaichuk, C. Nones, V. Novati, E. Olivieri, L. Pagnanini, P. Pari, L. Pattavina, M. Pavan, B. Paul, Y. Penichot, G. Pessina, G. Piperno, S. Pirro, O. Plantevin, D. V. Poda, E. Queguiner, T. Redon, M. Rodrigues, S. Rozov, C. Rusconi, V. Sanglard, K. Schäffner, S. Scorza, V. N. Shlegel, B. Siebenborn, O. Strazzer, D. Tcherniakhovski, C. Tomei, V. I. Tretyak, V. I. Umatov, L. Vagneron, Ya. V. Vasiliev, M. Velazquez, M. Vignati, M. Weber. 2017-04-06. Development of $^{100}$Mo-containing scintillating bolometers for a high-sensitivity neutrinoless double-beta decay search. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5343-2

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