First demonstration of a TES based cryogenic Li\(_2\)MoO\(_4\) detector for neutrinoless double beta decay search

Abstract

Cryogenic calorimetric experiments to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (\(0\nu \beta \beta \)) are highly competitive, scalable and versatile in isotope. The largest planned detector array, CUPID, is comprised of about 1500 individual Li\(_{2}\) \(^{100}\)MoO\(_4\) detector modules with a further scale up envisioned for a follow up experiment (CUPID-1T). In this article, we present a novel detector concept targeting this second stage with a low impedance TES based readout for the Li\(_2\)MoO\(_4\) absorber that is easily mass-produced and lends itself to a multiplexed readout. We present the detector design and results from a first prototype detector operated at the NEXUS shallow underground facility at Fermilab. The detector is a 2-cm-side cube with 21 g mass that is strongly thermally coupled to its readout chip to allow rise-times of \(\sim \)0.5 ms. This design is more than one order of magnitude faster than present NTD based detectors and is hence expected to effectively mitigate backgrounds generated through the pile-up of two independent two neutrino decay events coinciding close in time. Together with a baseline resolution of 1.95 keV (FWHM) these performance parameters extrapolate to a background index from pile-up as low as \(5\cdot 10^{-6}\) counts/keV/kg/yr in CUPID size crystals. The detector was calibrated up to the MeV region showing sufficient dynamic range for \(0\nu \beta \beta \) searches. In combination with a SuperCDMS HVeV detector this setup also allowed us to perform a precision measurement of the scintillation time constants of Li\(_2\)MoO\(_4\), which showed a primary component with a fast O(20 \(\upmu \)s) time scale.