Dark matter search project PICO-LON

Abstract

The PICO-LON project aims at search for cold dark matter by means of highly radio-pure and large volume NaI(Tl) scintillator. The NaI powder was purifed by chemical processing to remove lead isotopes and selecting a high purity graphite crucible. The concentrations of radioactive impurities of ${}^{226}$Ra and ${}^{228}$Th were effectively reduced to 58$\pm$4 $\hat{I}¼$Bq/kg and 1.5$\pm$1.9 $\hat{I}¼$Bq/kg, respectively. It should be remarked that the concentration of ${}^{210}$Pb, which is crucial for the sensitivity to dark matter, was reduced to 24$\pm$2 $\hat{I}¼$Bq/kg. The total background rate at 10 keVee was as low as 8 keV${}^{-1}$kg${}^{-1}$day${}^{-1}$, which was sufficiently low to search for dark matter. Further purification of NaI(Tl) ingot and future prospect of PICO-LON project is discussed.

Submitted to Proceedings of TAUP 2015