Enriched Crystal Scintillators for 2β Experiments

The investigation of 2β decay is an important issue in modern physics, allowing the test of the Standard Model of elementary particles and the study of the nature and properties of neutrinos. The crystal scintillators, especially made of isotopically-enriched materials, are powerful detectors for 2β...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Oksana G. Polischuk
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
Series:Physics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2624-8174/3/1/9
Description
Summary:The investigation of 2β decay is an important issue in modern physics, allowing the test of the Standard Model of elementary particles and the study of the nature and properties of neutrinos. The crystal scintillators, especially made of isotopically-enriched materials, are powerful detectors for 2β decay experiments thanks to the high radiopurity level and the possibility to realize the calorimetric “source = detector” approach with a high detection efficiency. For the moment, the 2ν2β processes have been observed at the level of 10<sup>19</sup>–10<sup>24</sup> years with enriched crystals; the sensitivity to the 0ν mode have reached the level of 10<sup>24</sup>–10<sup>26</sup> years in some decay channels for different nuclides allowing one to calculate the upper limits on the effective mass of the Majorana neutrino at the level of 0.1–0.6 eV. The paper is intended to be a review on the latest results to investigate 2β processes with crystal scintillators enriched in <sup>48</sup>Ca, <sup>106</sup>Cd, and <sup>116</sup>Cd.
ISSN:2624-8174