Prospect of undoped inorganic crystals at 77 Kelvin for low-mass dark matter search at Spallation Neutron Source

• Published in: The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields Particles and fields, 2020-06, Vol.80 (6), p.1-12, Article 547
• Main Authors: Chernyak, Dmitry, Pershey, Daniel, Liu, Jing, Ding, Keyu, Saunders, Nathan, Oli, Tupendra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytical instruments; Astronomy; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Comparative analysis; Crystals; Dark matter; Dark matter (Astronomy); Detectors; Electromagnetic absorption; Elementary Particles; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Neutrons; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear Physics; Photoelectrons; Photoionization; Photomultiplier tubes; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Prototypes; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Regular Article - Experimental Physics; Research facilities; Spallation; String Theory
• ISSN: 1434-6044; 1434-6052
• DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-8111-7

Investigated in this work were sensitivities of a prototype detector for the detection of low-mass dark matter particles produced at the Spallation Neutron Source at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2 years of data taking. The presumed prototype consisted of 10 kg undoped CsI or NaI scintillation crystals directly coupled with SiPM arrays operated at 77 K. Compared to the COHERENT CsI(Na) detector, a much higher light yield was assumed for the prototype. An experiment with a cylindrical 1 kg undoped CsI crystal coupled directly to two photomultiplier tubes at about 77 K was conducted as the first step to verify the idea. A light yield of 26.0 ± 0.4  photoelectrons per keV electron-equivalent was achieved. This eliminated the concern of self light absorption in large crystals raised in some of the early studies.