https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-6462-0
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
The 
crystal: a crystal scintillator for dark matter search experiment
1
Department of Physics, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 41566, South Korea
2
Center for Underground Physics, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Daejeon, 34126, South Korea
3
Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, SBRAS, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
* e-mail: hongjoo@knu.ac.kr
Received:
21
February
2018
Accepted:
16
November
2018
Published online:
24
November
2018
A single crystal of (NWO) was grown by a low-thermal-gradient Czochralski technique (LTG-CZ). The scintillation properties of the crystal were evaluated for the first time as a potential material for dark matter search experiments. The luminescence and scintillation characteristics of the crystal were studied at room temperature and low temperatures by using a light-emitting diode (LED) and a 
beta source. The luminescence and scintillation light yield at 10 K were significantly higher than those at room temperature. The crystal showed higher light yield at 10 K than a CaMoO
(CMO) crystal. The decay time of the crystal was investigated at temperatures between 10 and 300 K. The sensitivity to spin-independent weakly interacting massive particle-nucleon interactions based on 10 kg (2 months) and 50 kg (12 months) data for the NWO crystal detectors was estimated by a simulated experiment using the standard halo model. The luminescence, scintillation, and sensitivity results revealed that the NWO crystal is a promising candidate for a dark matter search experiment in the near future.
© The Author(s), 2018
