The DAMIC-M Low Background Chamber

• Published in: Journal of instrumentation 2024-11, Vol.19 (11), p.T11010
• Main Authors: Arnquist, I., Avalos, N., Bailly, P., Baxter, D., Bertou, X., Bogdan, M., Bourgeois, C., Brandt, J., Cadiou, A., Castelló-Mor, N., Chavarria, A.E., Conde, M., Cuevas-Zepeda, J., Dastgheibi-Fard, A., De Dominicis, C., Deligny, O., Desani, R., Dhellot, M., Duarte-Campderros, J., Estrada, E., Florin, D., Gadola, N., Gaïor, R., Gkougkousis, E.-L., González Sánchez, J., Hope, S., Hossbach, T., Huehn, M., Kallander, M., Kilminster, B., Iddir, L., Lantero-Barreda, A., Lawson, I., Lebbolo, H., Lee, S., Leray, P., Letessier Selvon, A., Lin, H., Loaiza, P., Lopez-Virto, A., Martin, D., McGuire, K.J., Milleto, T., Mitra, P., Moya Martin, D., Munagavalasa, S., Norcini, D., Overman, C., Paul, S., Peterson, D., Piers, A., Pochon, O., Privitera, P., Reynet, D., Roach, B.A., Robmann, P., Roehnelt, R., Settimo, M., Smee, S., Smida, R., Stillwell, B., Van Wechel, T., Traina, M., Vilar, R., Vollhardt, A., Warot, G., Wolf, D., Yajur, R., Zopounidis, J-P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Chambers; Charge coupled devices; Charge induction; Dark current; Dark matter; dark matter detectors; Dark Matter detectors (WIMPs, axions, etc.); INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; photon detectors; Photon detectors for UV, visible and IR photons (solid-state) (PIN diodes, APDs, Si-PMTs, G-APDs, CCDs, EBCCDs, EMCCDs, CMOS imagers, etc); Single electrons; Solid state detectors; Subsystems
• ISSN: 1748-0221; 1748-0221
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/19/11/T11010

The DArk Matter In CCDs at Modane (DAMIC-M) experiment is designed to search for light dark matter (m χ < 10 GeV/c 2 ) at the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (LSM) in France. DAMIC-M will use skipper charge-coupled devices (CCDs) as a kg-scale active detector target. Its single-electron resolution will enable eV-scale energy thresholds and thus world-leading sensitivity to a range of hidden sector dark matter candidates. A DAMIC-M prototype, the Low Background Chamber (LBC), has been taking data at LSM since 2022. The LBC provides a low-background environment, which has been used to characterize skipper CCDs, study dark current, and measure radiopurity of materials planned for DAMIC-M. It also allows testing of various subsystems like readout electronics, data acquisition software, and slow control. This paper describes the technical design and performance of the LBC.