A Study of Radioactive Contamination of (CaMoO4)-Ca-40-Mo-100 Crystals for the AMoRE Experiment

作者:Lee, J. Y.; Alenkov, V.; Ali, L.; Beyer, J.; Bibi, R.; Boiko, R. S.; Boonin, K.; Buzanov, O.; Chanthima, N.; Cheoun, M. K.; Chernyak, D. M.; Choi, J.; Choi, S.; Danevich, F. A.; Djamal, M.; Drung, D.; Enss, C.; Fleischmann, A.; Gangapshev, A.; Gastaldo, L.; Gavriljuk, Y.; Gezhaev, A.; Gurentsov, V.; Hahn, I. S.; Jeon, E. J.; Jo, H. S.; Joo, H.; Kaewkhao, J.; Kang, C. S.; Kang, S. J.; Kang, W. G.; Karki, S.; Kazalov, V.; Khan, S.; Khanbekov, N.; Kim, G. B.; Kim, H. J.; Kim, H. L.; Kim, H. O.
来源:IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2016, 63(2): 543-547.
DOI:10.1109/TNS.2016.2530828

摘要

A calcium molybdate (CaMoO4) crystal scintillator, with molybdenum enriched in Mo-100 and calcium depleted in Ca-48 ((CaMoO4)-Ca-40-Mo-100), was developed by the Advanced Molybdenum based Rare process Experiment (AMoRE) collaboration to search for a neutrinoless double beta (0 nu beta beta) decay of Mo-100. We are planning to use about 10 kg of (CaMoO4)-Ca-40-Mo-100 crystals as cryogenic bolometers for the first phase of the experiment (AMoRE-I) at the Yang Yang underground laboratory (Y2L) in Korea. This experiment calls for an extremely low level of radioactive contamination in detectors, particularly by thorium, uranium, and radium decay chains. We measured scintillation properties and radioactive contamination of CaMoO4 and (CaMoO4)-Ca-40-Mo-100 crystals at the Y2L. We also estimated the acceptable level of internal radioactive background using Monte Carlo simulation for the AMoRE-I.