Measurements of the Cerenkov light emitted by a TeO2 crystal

Abstract

Bolometers have proven to be good instruments to search for rare processes because of their excellent energy resolution and their extremely low intrinsic background. In this kind of detectors, the capability of discriminating alpha particles from electrons represents an important aspect for the background reduction. One possibility for obtaining such a discrimination is provided by the detection of the Cerenkov light which, at the low energies of the natural radioactivity, is only emitted by electrons. In this paper, the results of the analysis of the light emitted by a TeO2 crystal at room temperature when transversed by a cosmic ray are reported. Light is promptly emitted after the particle crossing and a clear evidence of its directionality is also found. These results represent a strong indication that Cerenkov light is the main, if not even the only, component of the light signal in a TeO2 crystal. They open the possibility to make large improvements in the performance of experiments based on this kind of materials

References in corpus (2)

• 130Te Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay with CUORICINO
• Discrimination of alpha and beta/gamma interactions in a TeO${}_2$ bolometer

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Complete event-by-event $\alpha$/$\gamma (\beta )$ separation in a full-size TeO${}_2$ CUORE bolometer by Neganov-Luke-magnified light detection
• The saga of neutrinoless double beta decay search with TeO2 thermal detectors
• Model for the Cherenkov light emission of TeO${}_2$ cryogenic calorimeters
• Potentialities of the future technical improvements in the search of rare nuclear decays by bolometers
• Measurements and optimization of the light yield of a TeO${}_2$ crystal