Speaker
Andrea Giuliani
(CSNSM-Orsay and DiSAT-Como)
Description
The LUMINEU project has recently set up a technology for the development of high-performance scintillating bolometers containing the nuclide $^{100}$Mo, in the framework of the R&D activities towards the tonne-scale neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu2\beta$) experiment CUPID. Using in particular Li$_2$$^{100}$MoO$_4$ detectors, high energy resolution (~5-6 keV FWHM at 2615 keV), excellent $\alpha$ background rejection (~99.9 %) and extreme radiopurity (below 10 $\mu$Bq/kg U/Th intrinsic activity) have been demonstrated in multiple tests with remarkable reproducibility. Moreover, with only ~0.1 kg$\times$yr of $^{100}$Mo exposure, the measured two-neutrino 2$\beta$ decay half-life is one of the most precise values ever reported. As a follow-up of this activity, a demonstrator named CUPID-Mo is ready to collect data in the Modane underground laboratory in France. CUPID-Mo consists of twenty 0.2-kg $^{100}$Mo-enriched Li$_2$MoO$_4$ scintillating bolometers (containing more than 2 kg of $^{100}$Mo) to be operated for at least 0.5 yr, providing a sensitivity to $0\nu2\beta$ of $^{100}$Mo larger than 10$^{24}$ yr. A prolongation of the experiment and its extension to available ~7 kg of $^{100}$Mo are under consideration.
Primary author
Andrea Giuliani
(CSNSM-Orsay and DiSAT-Como)
