Contributor info: Dr Radomir Smida

Radomir Smida for the DAMIC-M Collaboration

SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 015 (2023) · published 3 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

For optimal sensitivity to low-mass dark matter candidates experiments like DAMIC-M employ skipper charged-coupled devices (CCDs) with detection threshold of just a few ionization charges. Ionization signals from small-angle Compton scatters of environmental $\gamma$-rays, an important component of the background in dark matter searches, must thus be characterized down to $O$(10 eV) energy. Using a $^{241}$Am $\gamma$-ray source, we report a precise measurement of scattering on Si atomic shell electrons in a skipper CCD with single-electron resolution. Notable differences are observed between data and theoretical expectations in the L-shell energy region ($<$150 eV). We also present preliminary data from a skipper CCD exposed to low-energy neutrons ($<$24 keV) from a $^{124}$Sb$^9$Be photoneutron source, demonstrating a measurement of the nuclear recoil ionization efficiency in Si down to few ionization charges.

Isaac J. Arnquist, Nicolas Avalos, Philippe Bailly, David Baxter, Xavier Bertou, Mircea Bogdan, Christian Bourgeois, J. Brandt, Arnaud Cadiou, Nuria Castelló-Mor, Alvaro E. Chavarria, Marcel Conde, Nicholas J. Corso, J. C. Gutiérrez, Julian Cuevas-Zepeda, Ali Dastgheibi-Fard, Claudia De Dominicis, Olivier Deligny, R. Desani, Marc Dhellot, Jean-Jacques Dormard, Jordi Duarte-Campderros, E. Estrada, D. Florin, N. Gadola, R. Gaïor, J. González Sánchez, Todd W. Hossbach, Michael Huehn, Latifa Khalil, Ben Kilminster, Agustin Lantero-Barreda, Ian Lawson, Hervé Lebbolo, Steven Lee, Pascal Leray, Antoine Letessier-Selvon, Pia Loaiza, Amparo Lopez-Virto, David Martin, Ariel Matalon, Kellie McGuire, T. Milleto, Pitam Mitra, David M. Martin, S. Munagavalasa, Danielle Norcini, Cory T. Overman, Giorgos Papadopoulos, S. Paul, David Peterson, Alexander Piers, Olivier Pochon, Paolo Privitera, Karthik Ramanathan, Denis Reynet, Peter Robmann, Ryan Roehnelt, Mariangela Settimo, Radomir Smida, Ben Stillwell, Ryan Thomas, Michelangelo Traina, Philippe Vallerand, Tim Van Wechel, Ivan Vila, Rocio V. Cortabitarte, Achim Vollhardt, Guillaume Warot, D. Wolf, Rachana Yajur, J-P. Zopounidis

SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 014 (2023) · published 3 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

The DAMIC-M (DArk Matter In CCDs at Modane) experiment employs thick, fully depleted silicon charged-coupled devices (CCDs) to search for dark matter particles with a target exposure of 1 kg-year. A novel skipper readout implemented in the CCDs provides single electron resolution through multiple non-destructive measurements of the individual pixel charge, pushing the detection threshold to the eV-scale. DAMIC-M will advance by several orders of magnitude the exploration of the dark matter particle hypothesis, in particular of candidates pertaining to the so-called "hidden sector." A prototype, the Low Background Chamber (LBC), with 20g of low background Skipper CCDs, has been recently installed at Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane and is currently taking data. We will report the status of the DAMIC-M experiment and first results obtained with LBC commissioning data.

P. Adari, A. Aguilar-Arevalo, D. Amidei, G. Angloher, E. Armengaud, C. Augier, L. Balogh, S. Banik, D. Baxter, C. Beaufort, G. Beaulieu, V. Belov, Y. Ben Gal, G. Benato, A. Benoît, A. Bento, L. Bergé, A. Bertolini, R. Bhattacharyya, J. Billard, I.M. Bloch, A. Botti, R. Breier, G. Bres, J-.L. Bret, A. Broniatowski, A. Brossard, C. Bucci, R. Bunker, M. Cababie, M. Calvo, P. Camus, G. Cancelo, L. Canonica, F. Cappella, L. Cardani, J.-F. Caron, N. Casali, G.del Castello, A. Cazes, R. Cerulli, B.A. Cervantes Vergara, D. Chaize, M. Chapellier, L. Chaplinsky, F. Charlieux, M. Chaudhuri, A.E. Chavarria, G. Chemin, R. Chen, H. Chen, F. Chierchie, I. Colantoni, J. Colas, J. Cooley, J.-M. Coquillat, E.C. Corcoran, S. Crawford, M. Crisler, A. Cruciani, P. Cushman, A. D'Addabbo, J.C. D'Olivo, A. Dastgheibi-Fard, M. De Jésus, Y. Deng, J.B. Dent, E.L. Depaoli, K. Dering, S. Dharani, S. Di Lorenzo, A. Drlica-Wagner, L. Dumoulin, D. Durnford, B. Dutta, L. Einfalt, A. Erb, A. Erhart, R. Essig, J. Estrada, E. Etzion, O. Exshaw, F. Favela-Perez, F. v. Feilitzsch, G. Fernandez Moroni, N. Ferreiro Iachellini, S. Ferriol, S. Fichtinger, E. Figueroa-Feliciano, J.-B. Filippini, D. Filosofov, J. A. Formaggio, M. Friedl, S. Fuard, D. Fuchs, A. Fuss, R. Gaïor, A. Garai, C. Garrah, J. Gascon , G. Gerbier, M. Ghaith, V.M. Ghete, D. Gift, I. Giomataris, G. Giroux, A. Giuliani, P. Gorel, P. Gorla, C. Goupy, J. Goupy, C. Goy, M. Gros, P. Gros, Y. Guardincerri, C. Guerin, V. Guidi, O. Guillaudin, S. Gupta, E. Guy, P. Harrington, D. Hauff, S. T. Heine, S. A. Hertel, S.E. Holland, Z. Hong, E.W. Hoppe, T.W. Hossbach, J.-C. Ianigro, V. Iyer, A. Jastram, M. Ješkovský, Y. Jin, J. Jochum, J. P. Johnston, A. Juillard, D. Karaivanov, V. Kashyap, I. Katsioulas, S. Kazarcev, M. Kaznacheeva, F. Kelly, B. Kilminster, A. Kinast, L. Klinkenberg, H. Kluck, P. Knights, Y. Korn, H. Kraus, B. von Krosigk, A. Kubik, N.A. Kurinsky, J. Lamblin, A. Langenkämper, S. Langrock, T. Lasserre, H. Lattaud, P. Lautridou, I. Lawson, S.J. Lee, M. Lee, A. Letessier-Selvon, D. Lhuillier, M. Li, Y.-T. Lin, A. Lubashevskiy, R. Mahapatra, S. Maludze, M. Mancuso, I. Manthos, L. Marini, S. Marnieros, R.D. Martin, A. Matalon, J. Matthews, B. Mauri, D. W. Mayer, A. Mazzolari, E. Mazzucato, H. Meyer zu Theenhausen, E. Michielin, J. Minet, N. Mirabolfathi, K. v. Mirbach, D. Misiak, P. Mitra, J-.L. Mocellin, B. Mohanty, V. Mokina, J.-P. Mols, A. Monfardini, F. Mounier, S. Munagavalasa, J.-F. Muraz, X.-F. Navick, T. Neep, H. Neog, H. Neyrial, K. Nikolopoulos, A. Nilima, C. Nones, V. Novati, P. O'Brien, L. Oberauer, E. Olivieri, M. Olmi, A. Onillon, C. Oriol, A. Orly, J.L. Orrell, T. Ortmann, C.T. Overman, C. Pagliarone, V. Palušová, P. Pari, P. K. Patel, L. Pattavina, F. Petricca, A. Piers, H. D. Pinckney, M.-C. Piro, M. Platt, D. Poda, D. Ponomarev, W. Potzel, P. Povinec, F. Pröbst, P. Privitera, F. Pucci, K. Ramanathan, J.-S. Real, T. Redon, F. Reindl, R. Ren, A. Robert, J.Da Rocha, D. Rodrigues, R. Rogly, J. Rothe, N. Rowe, S. Rozov, I. Rozova, T. Saab, N. Saffold, T. Salagnac, J. Sander, V. Sanglard, D. Santos, Y. Sarkis, V. Savu, G. Savvidis, I. Savvidis, S. Schönert, K. Schäffner, N. Schermer, J. Schieck, B. Schmidt, D. Schmiedmayer, C. Schwertner, L. Scola, M. Settimo, Ye. Shevchik, V. Sibille, I. Sidelnik, A. Singal, R. Smida, M. Sofo Haro, T. Soldner, J. Stachurska, M. Stahlberg, L. Stefanazzi, L. Stodolsky, C. Strandhagen, R. Strauss, A. Stutz, R. Thomas, A. Thompson, J. Tiffenberg, C. Tomei, M. Traina, S. Uemura, I. Usherov, L. Vagneron, W. Van De Pontseele, F.A. Vazquez de Sola Fernandez, M. Vidal, M. Vignati, A.L. Virto, M. Vivier, T. Volansky, V. Wagner, F. Wagner, J. Walker, R. Ward, S.L. Watkins, A. Wex, M. Willers, M.J. Wilson, L. Winslow, E. Yakushev, T.-T. Yu, M. Zampaolo, A. Zaytsev, V. Zema, D. Zinatulina, A. Zolotarova

SciPost Phys. Proc. 9, 001 (2022) · published 9 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

Many low-threshold experiments observe sharply rising event rates of yet unknown origins below a few hundred eV, and larger than expected from known backgrounds. Due to the significant impact of this excess on the dark matter or neutrino sensitivity of these experiments, a collective effort has been started to share the knowledge about the individual observations. For this, the EXCESS Workshop was initiated. In its first iteration in June 2021, ten rare event search collaborations contributed to this initiative via talks and discussions. The contributing collaborations were CONNIE, CRESST, DAMIC, EDELWEISS, MINER, NEWS-G, NUCLEUS, RICOCHET, SENSEI and SuperCDMS. They presented data about their observed energy spectra and known backgrounds together with details about the respective measurements. In this paper, we summarize the presented information and give a comprehensive overview of the similarities and differences between the distinct measurements. The provided data is furthermore publicly available on the workshop’s data repository together with a plotting tool for visualization.