Related papers: Low-Energy Backgrounds in Solid-State Phonon and C…
High-energy photons with $\mathcal{O}$(MeV) energies from radioactive contaminants can scatter in a solid-state target material and constitute an important low-energy background for sub-GeV dark matter direct-detection searches. This…
Recent results from the SENSEI experiment show that a cut on event clustering can reduce low-energy excesses in their eV-sensitive calorimeter. This hints at the role of surrounding uninstrumented surfaces in producing backgrounds. Charged…
Solid state athermal phonon calorimeters used in the search for low mass dark matter or coherent neutrino-nucleus interactions have long observed a large excess of events below several hundred eV. The relaxation of damage created by the…
Proposed dark matter detectors with eV-scale sensitivities will detect a large background of atomic (nuclear) recoils from coherent photon scattering. This background climbs steeply below $\sim10$~eVnr, far exceeding the declining rate of…
The threshold displacement energy in solid state detector materials varies from several eV to ~100 eV. If a stable or long lived defect is created as a result of a nuclear recoil event, some part of the recoil energy is stored in the…
Various dark matter search experiments employ phonon-based crystal detectors operated at cryogenic temperatures. Some of these detectors, including certain silicon detectors used by the SuperCDMS Collaboration, are able to achieve…
We describe observations of low energy excess (LEE) events, background events observed in all light dark matter direct detection calorimeters, and noise in a Transition Edge Sensor based two-channel silicon athermal phonon detector with 375…
Recent progress in phonon-mediated detectors with eV-scale nuclear recoil energy sensitivity requires an understanding of the effect of the crystalline defects on the energy spectrum expected from dark matter or neutrino coherent…
Dark matter is five times more abundant than ordinary visible matter in our Universe. While laboratory searches hunting for dark matter have traditionally focused on the electroweak scale, theories of low mass hidden sectors motivate new…
We propose to use the defect creation energy loss in commonly used high energy physics solid state detectors as a tool to statistically identify dark matter signal from background. We simulate the energy loss in the process of defect…
We hypothesize that avalanche-like releases of energy accumulated in materials due to radioactivity and other sources can produce parasitic background in dark matter particles searches and low-energy threshold detectors. We explore this…
A new detector is being developed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) to measure low energy charged-particles from beta-delayed particle emission. These low energy particles are very important for nuclear…
Low-energy Compton scattering is an important background for sub-GeV dark matter direct-detection and other experiments. Current Compton scattering calculations typically rely on assumptions that are not valid in the low-energy region of…
Low-threshold dark matter detectors, in particular cryogenic detectors based on dielectric materials, are among the best tools for probing sub-GeV dark matter masses. In the coming years detectors of this type will become sensitive to solar…
Direct detection dark matter experiments have proven to be compelling probes for studying low-energy neutrino interactions with both nuclei and atomic electrons, offering complementary information to accelerator and reactor-based neutrino…
We report the first demonstration of a phonon-mediated silicon detector technology that provides a primary phonon measurement in a low-voltage region, and a simultaneous indirect measurement of the ionization signal through…
Experimental searches for axions or dark photons that couple to the standard model photon require photosensors with low noise, broadband sensitivity, and near zero backgrounds. Here, we introduce an experimental architecture, in which a…
Dual-phase xenon detectors, as currently used in direct detection dark matter experiments, have observed elevated rates of background electron events in the low energy region. While this background negatively impacts detector performance in…
We present limits on spin-independent dark matter-nucleon interactions using a $10.6$ $\mathrm{g}$ Si athermal phonon detector with a baseline energy resolution of $\sigma_E=3.86 \pm 0.04$ $(\mathrm{stat.})^{+0.19}_{-0.00}$…
Large mass single-electron-resolution solid state detectors are desirable to search for low mass dark matter candidates and to measure coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS). Here, we present results from a novel 100 g…