Published September 1, 2023 | Version v2
Journal Article Open

First Measurement of the Nuclear-Recoil Ionization Yield in Silicon at 100 eV

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology

Abstract

We measured the nuclear-recoil ionization yield in silicon with a cryogenic phonon-sensitive gram-scale detector. Neutrons from a monoenergetic beam scatter off of the silicon nuclei at angles corresponding to energy depositions from 4 keV down to 100 eV, the lowest energy probed so far. The results show no sign of an ionization production threshold above 100 eV. These results call for further investigation of the ionization yield theory and a comprehensive determination of the detector response function at energies below the keV scale.

Copyright and License

© 2023 American Physical Society

Acknowledgement

The SuperCDMS Collaboration gratefully acknowledges the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) facility and its staff. Funding and support were received from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Fermilab URA Visiting Scholar Grant No. 15-S-33, NSERC Canada, the Canada First Excellence Research Fund, the Arthur B. McDonald Institute (Canada), the Department of Atomic Energy Government of India (DAE), the Department of Science and Technology (DST, India) and the DFG (Germany)—Project No. 420484612 and under Germany's Excellence Strategy—EXC 2121 "Quantum Universe"—390833306. Femilab is operated by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC; SLAC is operated by Stanford University; and PNNL is operated by the Battelle Memorial Institute for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contracts No. DE-AC02-37407CH11359, No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and No. DE-AC05-76RL01830, respectively. The TUNL accelerator is operated and maintained for the U.S. Department of Energy with Grant No. DE-FG02-97ER41033. This research was enabled in part by support provided by SciNet [43] and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada [44].

Attached Files

Published article: PhysRevLett.131.091801.pdf

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PhysRevLett.131.091801.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

Funding

National Science Foundation
United States Department of Energy
DE-AC02-37407CH11359
United States Department of Energy
DE-AC02-76SF00515
United States Department of Energy
DE-AC05-76RL01830
United States Department of Energy
DE-FG02-97ER41033
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
15-S-33
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
Canada First Research Excellence Fund
Department of Atomic Energy
Department of Science and Technology
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
420484612
Stanford University
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Battelle
Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Arthur B. McDonald Institute
SciNet

Dates

Available
2023-08-28
Published Online
Accepted
2023-07-26
Accepted