Demonstration of surface electron rejection with interleaved germanium detectors for dark matter searches

R. Agnese, A. J. Anderson, D. Balakishiyeva, R. Basu Thakur, D. A. Bauer, A. Borgland, D. Brandt, P. L. Brink, R. Bunker, B. Cabrera, D. O. Caldwell, D. G. Cerdeno, H. Chagani, M. Cherry, J. Cooley, B. Cornell, C. H. Crewdson, P. Cushman, M. Daal, P. C.F. Di StefanoE. Do Couto E Silva, T. Doughty, L. Esteban, S. Fallows, E. Figueroa-Feliciano, J. Fox, M. Fritts, G. L. Godfrey, S. R. Golwala, J. Hall, H. R. Harris, J. Hasi, S. A. Hertel, B. A. Hines, T. Hofer, D. Holmgren, L. Hsu, M. E. Huber, A. Jastram, O. Kamaev, B. Kara, M. H. Kelsey, S. A. Kenany, A. Kennedy, C. J. Kenney, M. Kiveni, K. Koch, B. Loer, E. Lopez Asamar, R. Mahapatra

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

53 Scopus citations

Abstract

The SuperCDMS experiment in the Soudan Underground Laboratory searches for dark matter with a 9-kg array of cryogenic germanium detectors. Symmetric sensors on opposite sides measure both charge and phonons from each particle interaction, providing excellent discrimination between electron and nuclear recoils, and between surface and interior events. Surface event rejection capabilities were tested with two 210Pb sources producing ∼130 beta decays/hr. In ∼800 live hours, no events leaked into the 8-115 keV signal region, giving upper limit leakage fraction 1.7 × 10-5 at 90% C.L., corresponding to < 0.6 surface event background in the future 200-kg SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number164105
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume103
Issue number16
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 14 2013

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The SuperCDMS collaboration gratefully acknowledges the technical assistance from Jim Beaty and the staff of the Soudan Underground Laboratory and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. These iZIP detectors are fabricated in the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility, which is a member of the National Nanofabrication Infrastructure Network sponsored by NSF under Grant ECS-0335765. This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation (Grant Nos. AST-9978911, NSF-0847342, PHY-1102795, NSF-1151869, PHY-0542066, PHY-0503729, PHY-0503629, PHY-0503641, PHY-0504224, PHY-0705052, PHY-0801708, PHY-0801712, PHY-0802575, PHY-0847342, PHY-0855299, PHY-0855525, and PHY-1205898), by the Department of Energy (Contract Nos. DE-AC03-76SF00098, DE-FG02-92ER40701, DE-FG02-94ER40823, DE-FG03-90ER40569, DE-FG03-91ER40618, and DE-SC0004022), by NSERC Canada (Grant Nos. SAPIN 341314 and SAPPJ 386399), and by MULTIDARK CSD2009-00064 and FPA2012-34694. Fermilab is operated by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC under Contract No. De-AC02-07CH11359, while SLAC is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515 with the United States Department of Energy.

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