Particle detection in rare gas solid crystals: a feasibility experimental study—exploring new ways for dark matter searches

Abstract

AbstractThis article reviews the experimental activity that has been carried out within the INFN DEMIURGOS research and development (R &D) project. This R &D concerns the study of possible innovative experimental approaches for the detection of low-energy-releases of feeble interacting particles within the matter. Possible applications could be the direct investigation of Dark Matter candidates. The idea behind the proposed scheme is to exploit rare gas solid crystals both pure and doped, combined with the in-vacuum single electron detection technology. In pure materials, the signal can be the charge produced directly during the ionization. Laser-assisted processes can instead be used to probe low-energy-releases in doped materials. Both these mechanisms should lead to a detectable electronic signal triggered by the incoming particle. In such a way, energy threshold ranging from meV to tens of eV could in principle be reached, opening-up the possibility to probe theoretically, well-motivated regions of unexplored electroweak parameter-space and thus test the existence of light Dark Matter candidates. The activity presented here has been performed to understand the mechanisms at the basis of the proposed detection scheme and possible showstopper. The experimental investigations refer to the research and development phases about: the crystal growing techniques and the corresponding set-up, the electrons’ extraction from rare gas crystals to the vacuum environment, and finally the spectroscopic studies on atomic species embedded into rare gas matrices.