Large-size sub-keV sensitive germanium detectors for the CONUS experiment

Abstract

Intense fluxes of reactor antineutrinos offer a unique possibility to probe the fully coherent character of elastic neutrino scattering off atomic nuclei. In this regard, detectors face the challenge to register tiny recoil energies of a few keV at the maximum. The CONUS experiment was installed in 17.1 m distance from the reactor core of the nuclear power plant in Brokdorf, Germany, and was designed to detect this neutrino interaction channel by using four 1 kg-sized point contact germanium detectors with sub-keV energy thresholds. This report describes the unique specifications addressed to the design, the research and development, and the final production of these detectors. It demonstrates their excellent electronic performance obtained during commissioning under laboratory conditions as well as during the first two years of operation at the reactor site which started on April 1, 2018. It highlights the long-term stability of different detector parameters and the achieved background levels of the germanium detectors inside the CONUS shield setup.

arXiv comment(18 pages, 12 figures)

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Constraints on elastic neutrino nucleus scattering in the fully coherent regime from the CONUS experiment
• Measurement of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering from reactor antineutrinos
• Germanium response to sub-keV nuclear recoils: a multipronged experimental characterization
• Novel constraints on neutrino physics beyond the standard model from the CONUS experiment
• Direct measurement of the ionization quenching factor of nuclear recoils in germanium in the keV energy range
• Direct observation of coherent elastic antineutrino-nucleus scattering
• First results of the nuGeN experiment on coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• First upper limits on neutrino electromagnetic properties from the CONUS experiment
• Final CONUS results on coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering at the Brokdorf reactor
• Full background decomposition of the CONUS experiment
• On the impact of the Migdal effect in reactor CE$\nu$NS experiments
• Pulse shape discrimination for the CONUS experiment in the keV and sub-keV regime
• New constraints on coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering by the nuGeN experiment
• Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS) event rates for Ge, Zn and Si detector materials
• Novel coincidence detection technique for precision measurement of neutron-capture-induced nuclear recoils