Low-Temperature Scintillation for Rare-Event Searches

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Searches for rare-events, like interactions of the dark matter particles that may make up the bulk of the matter in the Universe, struggle to identify small signals in a haystack of radioactive background. Progress has been driven by improvements in background-rejecting detector technology. One promising technology applicable to many target nuclei is the measurement of scintillation and phonons at cryogenic temperatures. To develop such detectors, we have set up a uniquely efficient test bed to measure scintillation down to 4 K. We will study pure and doped NaI, with the goal of prototyping background-rejecting scintillation-phonon detectors. Deployed in a future experiment at SNOLAB for instance, they could verify the longstanding but controversial DAMA dark matter claim based on scintillation-only devices. We will also investigate other inorganic scintillators like CsI and ZnWO4 that may be of use in dark matter searches such as CRESST, as well as materials like ZnMoO4 of interest for double beta decay.