Eur. Phys. J. C (2012) 72: 2142
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-012-2142-7

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Performances of a large mass ZnMoO₄ scintillating bolometer for a next generation 0νDBD experiment

¹ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
² Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy
³ Sezione di Roma, INFN, 00185, Rome, Italy
⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano-Bicocca, 20126, Milano, Italy
⁵ Sezione di Milano Bicocca, INFN, 20126, Milano, Italy
⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli studi dell’Aquila, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
⁷ Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, INFN, 67010, L’Aquila, Italy
⁸ Sezione di Genova, INFN, 16146, Genova, Italy
⁹ Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry - SB RAS, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia
¹⁰ Institute for Nuclear Research, 03680, Kyiv, Ukraine

^* e-mail: Stefano.pirro@mib.infn.it

Received: 5 July 2012
Published online: 4 September 2012

Abstract

We present the performances of a 330 g zinc molybdate (ZnMoO₄) crystal working as scintillating bolometer as a possible candidate for a next generation experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of ¹⁰⁰Mo. The energy resolution, evaluated at the 2615 keV γ-line of ²⁰⁸Tl, is 6.3 keV FWHM. The internal radioactive contaminations of the ZnMoO₄ were evaluated as <6 μBq/kg (²²⁸Th) and 27±6 μBq/kg (²²⁶Ra). We also present the results of the α vs β/γ discrimination, obtained through the scintillation light as well as through the study of the shape of the thermal signal alone.