First test of crystal as a cryogenic scintillating bolometer

Abstract

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Optical, luminescence and thermal properties of radiopure ZnMoO4 crystals used in scintillating bolometers for double beta decay search

“…To discover (exclude) the inverted hierarchy pattern one should advance the experimental sensitivity to the level of 〈m ν 〉 $ 0:01-0:02 eV, which corresponds to T 1=2 $ 10 27 -10 28 years. Radioactivity with a half-life of 10 27 years means a few decays in 100 kg of isotope over 5 years (e.g., 1.4, 2.1 and 4.3 decays for 150 Nd, 100 Mo and 48 Ca, respectively). Observation of such a low activity requires detectors with high detection efficiency and energy resolution, and very low (ideally zero) background.…”

“…There are several possibilities for low temperature crystal scintillators containing molybdenum: Li 2 MoO 4 [27,28], Li 2 Zn 2 (-MoO 3 ) 4 [29], CaMoO 4 [8,[30][31][32][33], SrMoO 4 [8], CdMoO 4 [8,34], PbMoO 4 [8,[35][36][37]. Zinc molybdate (ZnMoO 4 ) is one of the most promising materials for the search for 0ν2β decay of 100 Mo thanks to the absence of long-lived radioactive isotopes of constituting elements and comparatively high percentage of molybdenum (43% in weight).…”

Performance of scintillation materials at cryogenic temperatures

“…Inorganic scintillators are a key component of CPSD and identification, characterization and optimization of scintillation materials for low‐temperature application are important tasks for achieving the required sensitivity. Since the publication of a first review paper on this topic 21 there has been a swift increase in research activities and the development of scintillator materials for cryogenic rare event search experiments that resulted in a number of publications 22–36 as well as designated workshops (CryoScint 37 and RPScint).…”

3D printed dielectric ceramic without a sintering stage

“…Lithium molybdate (Li 2 MoO 4 ) is a non-toxic dielectric ceramic material, which has been studied for corrosion inhibition 10,11 and moisture sensing applications 12,13 as well as a scintillator material for detecting some rare nuclear processes 14,15 , anode material for Li-ion batteries in modified form 16,17 , and catalyst for methane oxidation 18 . For microwave devices, Li 2 MoO 4 is of interest because of its beneficially low dielectric loss in addition to its low sintering temperature of 540 °C 19,20 .…”