Radiopurity of CaWO${}_4$ Crystals for Direct Dark Matter Search with CRESST and EURECA

Abstract

The direct dark matter search experiment CRESST uses scintillating CaWO${}_4$ single crystals as targets for possible WIMP scatterings. An intrinsic radioactive contamination of the crystals as low as possible is crucial for the sensitivity of the detectors. In the past CaWO${}_4$ crystals operated in CRESST were produced by institutes in Russia and the Ukraine. Since 2011 CaWO${}_4$ crystals have also been grown at the crystal laboratory of the Technische Universität München (TUM) to better meet the requirements of CRESST and of the future tonne-scale multi-material experiment EURECA. The radiopurity of the raw materials and of first TUM-grown crystals was measured by ultra-low background $\gamma$-spectrometry. Two TUM-grown crystals were also operated as low-temperature detectors at a test setup in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. These measurements were used to determine the crystals' intrinsic $\alpha$-activities which were compared to those of crystals produced at other institutes. The total $\alpha$-activities of TUM-grown crystals as low as 1.23 $\pm$ 0.06 mBq/kg were found to be significantly smaller than the activities of crystals grown at other institutes typically ranging between ~15 mBq/kg and ~35 mBq/kg.

arXiv commentCorrected typos, results unchanged

References in corpus (4)

• Results from 730 kg days of the CRESST-II Dark Matter Search
• Discrimination between Nuclear Recoils and Electron Recoils by Simultaneous Detection of Phonons and Scintillation Light
• Detection of the Natural Alpha Decay of Tungsten
• Influence of Annealing on the Optical and Scintillation Properties of CaWO${}_4$ Single Crystals

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