Flux-averaged cross sections for cosmogenic-neutron activation of natural tellurium were measured using a neutron beam containing neutrons of kinetic energies up to ∼800 MeV, and having an energy spectrum similar to that of cosmic-ray neutrons at sea-level. Analysis of the radioisotopes produced reveals that 110mAg will be a dominant contributor to the cosmogenic-activation background in experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 130Te, such as CUORE and SNO+. An estimate of the cosmogenic-activation background in the CUORE experiment has been obtained using the results of this measurement and cross-section measurements of proton activation of tellurium. Additionally, the measured cross sections in this work are also compared with results from semi-empirical cross-section calculations.
@article{arxiv.1503.02095,
title = {Cosmogenic-neutron activation of TeO2 and implications for neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments},
author = {Barbara S. Wang and Eric B. Norman and Nicholas D. Scielzo and Alan R. Smith and Keenan J. Thomas and Stephen A. Wender},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.02095},
year = {2015}
}