https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-8329-4
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Cryogenic characterization of a
crystal and new results on spin-dependent dark matter interactions with ordinary matter
CRESST Collaboration
1
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, 80805, Munich, Germany
2
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, 84248, Bratislava, Slovakia
3
Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, INFN, 67100, Assergi, Italy
4
Physik-Department and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, 85748, Garching, Germany
5
Institut für Hochenergiephysik der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1050, Wien, Austria
6
Atominstitut, Vienna University of Technology, 1020, Wien, Austria
7
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
8
Department of Physics, University of Oxford, OX1 3RH, Oxford, UK
9
Departamento de Fisica, Universidade de Coimbra, 3004 516, Coimbra, Portugal
10
GSSI-Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
11
Walther-Meißner-Institut für Tieftemperaturforschung, 85748, Garching, Germany
12
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Meccanica, Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, 03043, Cassino, Italy
13
Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96, Göteborg, Sweden
14
Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung, 12489, Berlin, Germany
Received:
6
May
2020
Accepted:
6
August
2020
Published online:
8
September
2020
In this work, a first cryogenic characterization of a scintillating single crystal is presented. The results achieved show that this material holds great potential as a target for direct dark matter search experiments. Three different detector modules obtained from one crystal grown at the Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung (IKZ) have been tested to study different properties at cryogenic temperatures. Firstly, two 2.8 g twin crystals were used to build different detector modules which were operated in an above-ground laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP) in Munich, Germany. The first detector module was used to study the scintillation properties of
at cryogenic temperatures. The second achieved an energy threshold of (
) eV which allows setting a competitive limit on the spin-dependent dark matter particle-proton scattering cross section for dark matter particle masses between
and
. Secondly, a detector module with a 373 g
crystal as the main absorber was tested in an underground facility at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS): from this measurement it was possible to determine the radiopurity of the crystal and study the feasibility of using this material as a neutron flux monitor for low-background experiments.
Key words: Dark matter / Cryogenics / Spin-dependent / Lithium / Neutrons
© The Author(s) 2020
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