Enriched Crystal Scintillators for 2β Experiments

• Main Author: Oksana G. Polischuk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: Physics
• Subjects: enriched crystals; scintillators; double beta decay
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-8174/3/1/9

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 10¹⁹–10²⁴ years with enriched crystals; the sensitivity to the 0ν mode have reached the level of 10²⁴–10²⁶ 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 ⁴⁸Ca, ¹⁰⁶Cd, and ¹¹⁶Cd.