LUX-ZEPLIN

Abstract:

European Underground Rare Event Calorimeter Array (EURECA) will be an astro-particle physics facility in the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane, aiming to directly detect galactic dark matter. The EURECA collaboration unites CRESST, EDELWEISS and the Spanish-French experiment ROSEBUD, thus concentrating and focussing effort on cryogenic detector research in Europe into a single facility. The aim is to explore WIMP - nucleon scalar cross sections in the 10-9 - 10-10 picobarn region with a target mass of up to one ton. A major advantage of EURECA is the planned use of more than just one target material (multi target experiment for WIMP identification).

Abstract:

Results are presented of our latest research, aimed at the development and study of oxide scintillation crystals with high scintillation yield and low intrinsic radioactivity. We report on the improvement of these properties for conventional scintillators, as well as on new promising crystals based on metal tungstates and molybdates. The results are discussed in view of applying these materials in cryogenic experiments searching for dark matter or neutrinoless double beta decay. ©2008 IEEE.

Abstract:

High precision magnetometry is an essential requirement of the cryoEDM experiment at the Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble. We have developed a SQUID system for this purpose, however tests done in Oxford have been limited by the noisy electromagnetic environment inside our laboratory, therefore we have tested a smaller version of our prototype system in the very low noise environment at LSBB, Rustrel, France. We have studied the crosstalk between an array of parallel pick-up loops - where the field generated by a current in one loop is detected by the others. We monitored the magnetic field in the LSBB for over twelve hours; and after correcting these data for SQUID resets, and crosstalk, we compare it to the published values from nearby geomagnetic observatories. We have also measured the noise spectrum of our system and studied the effect that heating one of the pick-up loops into its conducting state has on the other, parallel loops. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA.

Abstract:

The scintillation light response and the decay time constant of Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) were measured down to a temperature of 6 K using a multi-photon counting technique. The light response of BGO was confirmed to be temperature independent below 100 K and an estimate of the light yield was made, giving a value of 23,700±2600 ph/MeV. The temperature dependence of the scintillation decay time constant is interpreted using a simple three-level model for the emission centre which agrees well with the experimental data over the temperature range investigated. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.