Performance of a 60 gram cryogenic germanium detector

Author

Cummings, A. ; Wang, N. ; Shutt, T. ; Barnes, P. ; Emes, J. ; Giraud-Heraud, Y. ; Haller, E.E. ; Lange, A. ; Rich, J. ; Ross, R. ; Sadoulet, B. ; Smith, G. ; Stubbs, C.

Author_Institution

California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

38

Issue

2

fYear

1991

fDate

4/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

226

Lastpage

230

Abstract

A 60-g particle detector which utilizes the ionization and the phonons produced by a particle interaction has been developed. Six NDT (neutron transmutation doped) Ge thermistors are attached to a pure germanium crystal which has implanted contacts for drifting charge. The authors have operated the detectors at 30 mK and have studied its response to irradiation by 18- and 60-keV photons from an ²⁴¹Am source. An analysis of the resolution of the detector which addresses the noise of the front-end electronics and signals from extraneous sources such as microphonics is presented. The simultaneous measurement of phonons and ionization has been demonstrated to have a resolution of 4 keV. This joint detection should prove to be very valuable in distinguishing between candidate dark matter interaction events and competing background processes

Keywords

cosmic ray apparatus; cryogenics; dark matter; gamma-ray detection and measurement; nuclear electronics; semiconductor counters; 60-g particle detector; ²⁴¹Am source; Ge thermistors; background processes; cryogenic detector; crystal; dark matter interaction events; extraneous sources; front-end electronics; implanted contacts; ionization; microphonics; neutron transmutation doped; noise; particle interaction; phonons; photons; resolution; simultaneous measurement; Cryogenics; Germanium; Ionization; Neutrons; Phonons; Photonic crystals; Radiation detectors; Signal analysis; Signal resolution; Thermistors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.289301

Filename

289301