Discrimination of alpha and beta/gamma interactions in a TeO${}_2$ bolometer

Abstract

TeO${}_2$ crystals have proven to be superb bolometers for the search of neutrinoless double beta decay in many respects. However, if used alone, they do not exhibit any feature that allows to discriminate an alpha energy deposit from a beta/gamma one. This fact limits their ability to reject the background due to natural radioactivity and eventually affects the sensitivity of the search. In this paper we show the results of a TeO${}_2$ crystal where, in coincidence with its bolometric heat signal, also the luminescence light escaping the crystal is recorded. The results show that we are able to measure the light produced by beta/gamma particles, which can be explained as due to Cerenkov emission. No light is detected from alpha particles, allowing the rejection of this background source.

5 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Double Beta Decay, Majorana Neutrinos, and Neutrino Mass
• Anatomy of nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double-beta decay
• 130Te Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay with CUORICINO
• A novel technique of particle identification with bolometric detectors
• Optimizing the energy threshold of light detectors coupled to luminescent bolometers
• Response of a TeO_2 bolometer to alpha particles

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