Feasibility study of PbWO(4) and PbMoO(4) crystal scintillators for cryogenic rare events experiments

2010
6 pages
Published in:
  • Nucl.Instrum.Meth.A 622 (2010) 608-613

Citations per year

201020132016201920221032
Abstract: (Elsevier)
Scintillation properties of PbWO_4 and PbMoO_4 have been studied as potential cryogenic scintillators for rare event searches. The light output and decay kinetics of PbWO_4 and PbMoO_4 crystals for excitation with ^2^4^1Am @a particles were examin ed over the temperature range 7-300K. The @a/@c ratio was measured with a PbMoO_4 crystal scintillator for 5.3MeV @a particles, and the ability to distinguish between signals induced by @a particles and @c quanta by pulse shape discrimination was assessed for the PbMoO_4 crystal scintillator at 77K. The energy dependence of the quenching factor for oxygen, molybdenum, tungsten and lead ions at low energy was calculated using a semi-empirical approach with data from the @a particle measurements. The study demonstrates the good potential of these scintillators for cryogenic dark matter search and double beta decay experiments.
  • scintillation counter: crystal
  • scintillation counter: cryogenics
  • photon: yield
  • excited state: decay
  • lead: molybdenum
  • quenching
  • lead: tungsten
  • oxygen
  • helium: irradiation
  • yield: temperature dependence