Rejection of Alpha Surface Background in Non-scintillating Bolometric Detectors: The ABSuRD Project

Abstract

Due to their excellent energy resolution values and the vast choice of possible materials, bolometric detectors are currently widely used in the physics of rare events. A limiting aspect for bolometers rises from their inability to discriminate among radiation types or surface from bulk events. It has been demonstrated that the main limitation to sensitivity for purely bolometric detectors is represented by surface alpha contaminations, causing a continuous background that cannot be discriminated. A new scintillation-based technique for the rejection of surface alpha background in non-scintillating bolometric experiments is proposed in this work. The idea is to combine a scintillating and a high sensitivity photon detector with a non-scintillating absorber. We present results showing the possibility to reject events due to alpha decay at or nearby the surface of the crystal.