M. Maino

Current Status and Future Perspectives of the LUCIFER Experiment

In the field of fundamental particle physics, the neutrino has become more and more important in the last few years, since the discovery of its mass. In particular, the ultimate nature of the neutrino (if it is a Dirac or a Majorana particle) plays a crucial role not only in neutrino physics, but also in the overall framework of fundamental particle interactions and in cosmology. The only way to disentangle its ultimate nature is to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay. The idea of LUCIFER is to combine the bolometric technique proposed for the CUORE experiment with the bolometric light detection technique used in cryogenic dark matter experiments. The bolometric technique allows an extremely good energy resolution while its combination with the scintillation detection offers an ultimate tool for background rejection. The goal of LUCIFER is not only to build a background-free small-scale experiment but also to directly prove the potentiality of this technique. Preliminary tests on several detectors containing different interesting DBD emitters have clearly demonstrated the excellent background rejection capabilities that arise from the simultaneous, independent, double readout of heat and scintillation light.

CLARO-CMOS, a very low power ASIC for fast photon counting with pixellated photodetectors

The CLARO-CMOS is an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designed for fast photon counting with pixellated photodetectors such as multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (Ma- PMT), micro-channel plates (MCP), and silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). The first prototype has four channels, each with a charge sensitive amplifier with settable gain and a discriminator with settable threshold, providing fast hit information for each channel independently. The design was realized in a long-established, stable and inexpensive 0.35mm CMOS technology, and provides outstanding performance in terms of speed and power dissipation. The prototype consumes less than 1 mW per channel at low rate, and less than 2 mW at an event rate of 10 MHz per channel. The recovery time after each pulse is less than 25 ns for input signals within a factor of 10 above threshold. Input referred RMS noise is about 7.7 ke (1.2 fC) with an input capacitance of 3.3 pF. With this value of input capacitance a timing resolution down to 10 ps RMS was measured for pulser signals of a few million electrons, corresponding to the single photon response for these detectors.

The COSINUS project - perspectives of a NaI scintillating calorimeter for dark matter search

The R&D project COSINUS (Cryogenic Observatory for SIgnatures seen in Next-generation Underground Searches) aims to develop a cryogenic scintillating calorimeter using an undoped NaI-crystal as target for direct dark matter search. Dark matter particles interacting with the detector material generate both a phonon signal and scintillation light. While the phonon signal provides a precise determination of the deposited energy, the simultaneously measured scintillation light allows for particle identification on an event-by-event basis, a powerful tool to study material-dependent interactions, and to suppress backgrounds. Using the same target material as the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration, the COSINUS technique may offer a unique possibility to investigate and contribute information to the presently controversial situation in the dark matter sector. We report on the dedicated design planned for the NaI proof-of-principle detector and the objectives of using this detection technique in the light of direct dark matter detection.

First array of enriched Zn

The R&D activity performed during the last years proved the potential of ZnSe scintillating bolometers to the search for neutrino-less double beta decay, motivating the realization of the first large-mass experiment based on this technology: CUPID-0. The isotopic enrichment in

Se bolometers to search for double beta decay

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A fast and low noise charge sensitive preamplifier in 90 nm CMOS technology

82Se, the Zn

Crosstalk Study of the Single-Photon Response of a Flat-Panel PMT for the RICH Upgrade at LHCb

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