Eur. Phys. J. C (2008) 53: 205-213
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-007-0479-0

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Possible implications of the channeling effect in NaI(Tl) crystals

¹ Dip. di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata and INFN, sez. Roma Tor Vergata, 00133, Rome, Italy
² Dip. di Fisica, Università di Roma La Sapienza and INFN, sez. Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy
³ Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, INFN, Assergi, Italy
⁴ IHEP, Chinese Academy, P.O. Box 918/3, Beijing, 100039, P.R. China
⁵ University of Jing Gangshan, Jiangxi, P.R. China

^* e-mail: rita.bernabei@roma2.infn.it

Received: 1 October 2007
Published online: 28 November 2007

Abstract

The channeling effect of low energy ions along the crystallographic axes and planes of NaI(Tl) crystals is discussed in the framework of corollary investigations on WIMP dark matter candidates. In fact, the modeling of this existing effect implies a more complex evaluation of the luminosity yield for low energy recoiling Na and I ions. In the present paper related phenomenological arguments are developed and possible implications are discussed at some extent.