Experiments built to search for neutrinoless double beta-decay are limited in their sensitivity not only by the exposure but also by the amount of background encountered. Radioactive isotopes in the surrounding of the detectors which emit gamma-radiation are expected to be a significant source of background in the GERmanium Detector Array, GERDA. Methods to select electron induced events and discriminate against photon induced events inside a germanium detector are presented in this paper. The methods are based on the analysis of the time structure of the detector response. Data were taken with a segmented GERDA prototype detector. It is shown that the analysis of the time response of the detector can be used to distinguish multiply scattered photons from electrons.
@article{arxiv.0704.3016,
title = {Pulse shapes from electron and photon induced events in segmented high-purity germanium detectors},
author = {I. Abt and A. Caldwell and K. Kröninger and J. Liu and X. Liu and B. Majorovits},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0704.3016},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
18 pages, 7 figures, to be submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A