Related papers: $^{222}$Rn contamination mechanisms on acrylic sur…
Background: Trace quantities of contaminating DNA are widespread in the laboratory environment, but their presence has received little attention in the context of high throughput sequencing. This issue is highlighted by recent works that…
The continuous emanation of $^{222}$Rn from detector surfaces causes the dominant background in current liquid xenon time projection chambers (TPCs) searching for dark matter. A significant reduction is required for the next generation of…
In this paper, we describe the XENON100 data analyses used to assess the target-intrinsic background sources radon ($^{222}$Rn), thoron ($^{220}$Rn) and krypton ($^{85}$Kr). We detail the event selections of high-energy alpha particles and…
Precise radon measurements are a requirement for various applications, ranging from radiation protection over environmental studies to material screening campaigns for rare-event searches. All of them ultimately depend on the availability…
We report the results of six years (2013-2018) of measurements of $^{222}$Rn air concentration, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and temperature in the halls A, B and C of the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC). We have calculated…
Radioactive radon atoms originating from the long-lived primordial $^{238}\mathrm{U}$ and $^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ decay chains are constantly emanated from the surfaces of most materials. The radon atoms and their radioactive daughter isotopes…
Hydrocarbon contamination is an ever-present factor to consider in surface science measurements. In the case of van der Waals material surfaces, the structure of this contamination has become known in recent years as a self-assembled layer…
Long-lived alpha and beta emitters in the $^{222}$Rn decay chain on (and near) detector surfaces may be the limiting background in many experiments attempting to detect dark matter or neutrinoless double-beta decay, and in screening…
It has been known that decays of daughter elements of $^{222}$Rn on the surface of a detector cause significant background at energies below 10 keV. In particular $^{210}$Pb and $^{210}$Po decays on the crystal surface result in significant…
Several particle-physics experiments use poly(methyl methacrylate) (a.k.a. PMMA or acrylic) vessels to contain liquid scintillators. Superluminal charged particles emitted from radioactive impurities in or near the acrylic can emit…
The next generation low-background detectors operating deep underground aim for unprecedented low levels of radioactive backgrounds. The deposition and presence of radon progeny on detector surfaces is an added source of energetic…
The selection of low-radioactive construction materials is of the utmost importance for rare-event searches and thus critical to the XENONnT experiment. Results of an extensive radioassay program are reported, in which material samples have…
Radiation from acoustic sources located inside randomly-layered structures is studied using the transfer matrix method. It is shown that in contrast to the periodically layered cases where the radiation can be either enhanced or inhibited…
Raman spectroscopy is a useful experimental tool to investigate local deformation and structural changes in SiO$_2$-based glasses. Using a semi-classical modelling of Raman spectra in large samples of silica glasses, we show in this paper…
Electromagnetic interaction between a sub-wavelength particle (the `probe') and a material surface (the `sample') is studied theoretically. The interaction is shown to be governed by a series of resonances corresponding to surface polariton…
We investigate, both theoretically and numerically, a graphene-coated nano-cylinder illuminated by a plane electromagnetic wave in THz range of frequencies. We have derived an analytical formula that enables fast evaluation of the spectral…
The surface-enhanced Raman scattering in graphene deposited on AlxGa1-xN/GaN axial heterostructure nanowires was investigated. The intensity of graphene Raman spectra was found not to be correlated with aluminium content. Analysis of…
The 232U content of various uranium-bearing items was measured using low-background gamma spectrometry. The method is independent of the measurement geometry, sample form and chemical composition. Since 232U is an artificially produced…
Micro-ring resonators (MRRs) "trap" incoming light, and therefore, have been shown to achieve extremely high local intensities of light. Thus, they can be used to facilitate highly non-linear optical signals. By embedding materials that…
Surface contamination not only influences but in some cases even dominates the measured properties of two-dimensional materials. Although different cleaning methods are often used for contamination removal, commonly used spectroscopic…