https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-11104-3
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Alpha backgrounds in the AMoRE-Pilot experiment
1
JSC FOMOS-Materials, 107023, Moscow, Russia
2
Department of Physics, Kyungpook National University, 41566, Daegu, Korea
3
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany
4
Institute for Nuclear Research of NASU, 03028, Kyiv, Ukraine
5
Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, 73000, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
6
Department of Physics, Soongsil University, 06978, Seoul, Korea
7
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, 08826, Seoul, Korea
8
Department of Physics, Institut Teknologi Bandung, 40132, Bandung, Indonesia
9
Kirchhoff-Institute for Physics, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
10
Baksan Neutrino Observatory of INR RAS, 361609, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia
11
Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia
12
Department of Physics, Chung-Ang University, 06911, Seoul, Korea
13
Department of Physics and Research Institute for Natural Science, Hanyang University, 04763, Seoul, Korea
14
Center for Underground Physics, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), 34126, Daejeon, Korea
15
Semyung University, 27136, Jecheon, Korea
16
Department of Physics, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 26000, Kohat, Pakistan
17
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sejong University, 05006, Seoul, Korea
18
University of Science and Technology (UST), 34113, Daejeon, Korea
19
National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, 115409, Moscow, Russia
20
Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, 34113, Daejeon, Korea
21
Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China
22
V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 61022, Kharkiv, Ukraine
23
Department of Accelerator Science, Korea University, 30019, Sejong, Korea
24
Department of Physics, Abdul Wali Khan University, 23200, Mardan, Pakistan
25
University of Mataram, 83121, Mataram Nusa Tenggara Bar., Indonesia
26
Department of Physics, Universitas Negeri Padang, 25131, Padang, Indonesia
Received:
16
July
2021
Accepted:
5
December
2022
Published online:
16
December
2022
The Advanced Mo-based Rare process Experiment (AMoRE)-Pilot experiment is an initial phase of the AMoRE search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 
Mo, with the purpose of investigating the level and sources of backgrounds. Searches for neutrinoless double beta decay generally require ultimately low backgrounds. Surface 
decays on the crystals themselves or nearby materials can deposit a continuum of energies that can be as high as the Q-value of the decay itself and may fall in the region of interest (ROI). To understand these background events, we studied backgrounds from radioactive contaminations internal to and on the surface of the crystals or nearby materials with Geant4-based Monte Carlo simulations. In this study, we report on the measured energy spectra fitted with the corresponding simulated spectra for six crystal detectors, where sources of background contributions could be identified through high energy peaks and continuum parts in the energy spectrum for both internal and surface contaminations. We determine the low-energy contributions from internal and surface contaminations by extrapolating from the background fitting model.
© The Author(s) 2022
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Funded by SCOAP3. SCOAP3 supports the goals of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.
