Lakshay Dheer, Liang Z. Tan, S. A. Lyon, Thomas Schenkel, Sinéad M. Griffin
{"title":"Factors influencing quantum evaporation of helium from polar semiconductors from first principles","authors":"Lakshay Dheer, Liang Z. Tan, S. A. Lyon, Thomas Schenkel, Sinéad M. Griffin","doi":"arxiv-2409.03857","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"While there is much indirect evidence for the existence of dark matter (DM),\nto date it has evaded detection. Current efforts focus on DM masses over\n$\\sim$GeV -- to push the sensitivity of DM searches to lower masses, new DM\ntargets and detection schemes are needed. In this work, we focus on the latter\n- a novel detection scheme recently proposed to detect ~10-100 meV phonons in\npolar target materials. Previous work showed that well-motivated models of DM\ncan interact with polar semiconductors to produce an athermal population of\nphonons. This new sensing scheme proposes that these phonons then facilitate\nquantum evaporation of $^3$He from a van der Waals film deposited on the target\nmaterial. However, a fundamental understanding of the underlying process is\nstill unclear, with several uncertainties related to the precise rate of\nevaporation and how it can be controlled. In this work, we use \\textit{ab\ninitio} density functional theory (DFT) calculations to compare the adsorption\nenergies of helium atoms on a polar target material, sodium iodide (NaI), to\nunderstand the underlying evaporation physics. We explore the role of surface\ntermination, monolayer coverage and elemental species on the rate of He\nevaporation from the target material. Using this, we discuss the optimal target\nfeatures for He-evaporation experiments and their range of tunability through\nchemical and physical modifications such as applied field and surface\ntermination.","PeriodicalId":501374,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - Instrumentation and Detectors","volume":"95 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"arXiv - PHYS - Instrumentation and Detectors","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2409.03857","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
While there is much indirect evidence for the existence of dark matter (DM),
to date it has evaded detection. Current efforts focus on DM masses over
$\sim$GeV -- to push the sensitivity of DM searches to lower masses, new DM
targets and detection schemes are needed. In this work, we focus on the latter
- a novel detection scheme recently proposed to detect ~10-100 meV phonons in
polar target materials. Previous work showed that well-motivated models of DM
can interact with polar semiconductors to produce an athermal population of
phonons. This new sensing scheme proposes that these phonons then facilitate
quantum evaporation of $^3$He from a van der Waals film deposited on the target
material. However, a fundamental understanding of the underlying process is
still unclear, with several uncertainties related to the precise rate of
evaporation and how it can be controlled. In this work, we use \textit{ab
initio} density functional theory (DFT) calculations to compare the adsorption
energies of helium atoms on a polar target material, sodium iodide (NaI), to
understand the underlying evaporation physics. We explore the role of surface
termination, monolayer coverage and elemental species on the rate of He
evaporation from the target material. Using this, we discuss the optimal target
features for He-evaporation experiments and their range of tunability through
chemical and physical modifications such as applied field and surface
termination.