Cosmogenic activation of Germanium and its reduction for low background experiments

Abstract

Production of ${}^{60}$Co and ${}^{68}$Ge from stable isotopes of Germanium by nuclear active component of cosmic rays is a principal background source for a new generation of ${}^{76}$Ge double beta decay experiments like GERDA and Majorana. The biggest amount of cosmogenic activity is expected to be produced during transportation of either enriched material or already grown crystal. In this letter properties and feasibility of a movable iron shield are discussed. Activation reduction factor of about 10 is predicted by simulations with SHIELD code for a simple cylindrical configuration. It is sufficient for GERDA Phase II background requirements. Possibility of further increase of reduction factor and physical limitations are considered. Importance of activation reduction during Germanium purification and detector manufacturing is emphasized.

arXiv comment10 pages, 3 tables, 6 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Double Beta Decay
• Data Acquisition and Analysis of the 76Ge Double Beta Experiment in Gran Sasso 1990-2003

Cited by in corpus (25)

• The GERDA experiment for the search of 0νββ decay in ^{76}Ge
• The background in the neutrinoless double beta decay experiment GERDA
• Production, characterization and operation of ${}^{76}$Ge enriched BEGe detectors in GERDA
• ACTIVIA: Calculation of Isotope Production Cross-sections and Yields
• Cosmogenic Production as a Background in Searching for Rare Physics Processes
• Cosmogenic radionuclide production in NaI(Tl) crystals
• Cosmogenic production of tritium in dark matter detectors
• Cosmogenic activation of materials
• The Processing of Enriched Germanium for the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR and R&D for a Possible Future Ton-Scale Ge-76 Double-Beta Decay Experiment
• Fabrication and Characterization of High-Purity Germanium Detectors with Amorphous Germanium Contacts
• Excitation functions of proton-induced reactions on natural Nd in the 10-30 MeV energy range, and production of radionuclides relevant for double-β decay
• Fast-Neutron Activation of Long-Lived Isotopes in Enriched Ge
• Large-size sub-keV sensitive germanium detectors for the CONUS experiment
• Cosmogenic Activation of Germanium Used for Tonne-Scale Rare Event Search Experiments
• Cosmogenic activation of a natural tellurium target
• Excitation functions of proton-induced reactions on natural Nd and production of radionuclides relevant for double beta decay: Completing measurement in 5-35 MeV energy range
• Study on cosmogenic activation in germanium detectors for future tonne-scale CDEX experiment
• Production Rate Measurement of Tritium and Other Cosmogenic Isotopes in Germanium with CDMSlite
• Full background decomposition of the CONUS experiment
• Cosmogenic activation in double beta decay experiments
• Study of cosmogenic activation above ground for the DarkSide-20k experiment
• Hydrogen reduction of enriched germanium dioxide and zone-refining for the LEGEND experiment
• Signatures of muonic activation in the Majorana Demonstrator
• Cosmogenic background study for a 100Mo-based bolometric demonstration experiment at China JinPing underground Laboratory
• Study of cosmogenic activation in ${}^{76}$Ge enriched germanium detectors during fabrication and transportation above ground