Related papers: A rapid low-background assay of $^{210}$Pb in arch…
Archeological Roman lead (Pb) is known to be a suitable material for shielding experimental apparata in rare event searches. In the past years the intrinsic radiopurity of this material was investigated using different technologies. In this…
We established a method to assay $^{210}$Pb and $^{210}$Po contaminations in the bulk of copper samples using a low-background alpha particle counter. The achieved sensitivity for the $^{210}$Pb and $^{210}$Po contaminations reaches a few…
Clean materials are required to construct and operate many low-background physics experiments. High-purity copper has found broad use because of its physical properties and availability. In this paper, we describe methods to assay and…
The World Health Organisation (WHO) presents an upper limit for lead in drinking water of 10 parts per billion ppb. Typically, to reach this level of sensitivity, expensive metrology is required. To increase the sensitivity of low cost…
Assay methods for measuring 238U, 232Th, and 210Pb concentrations in refined lead are presented. The 238U and 232Th concentrations are determined using isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ID-ICP-MS) after anion…
An estimated 26 million people in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of lead exposure and there is no safe threshold for lead ingestion. Radio assay methods are not easily accessible in regions at risk, therefore a low cost and…
Naturally occurring radionuclide $^{210}$Pb ($T_{1/2}$=22.2 y) is an important source of background in rare event searches, such as neutrinoless double-$\beta$ decay and dark matter direct detection experiments. When a sample mass of…
We operated a PbMoO$_4$ scintillating cryogenic detector of 570 g, produced with archaeological lead. This compound features excellent low temperature characteristics in terms of light yield, 12 keV/MeV for $\beta/\gamma$ interactions, and…
The liquid scintillator (LS) has been widely utilized in the past, running and future neutrino experiments, and requirement to the LS radio-purity is higher and higher. The water extraction is a powerful method to remove soluble radioactive…
We performed a high-precision study of the $^{215}$ Po $\alpha$-decay using a LaBr$_3$ scintillating detector in a low-background environment. The $^{227}$Ac intrinsic contamination in the LaBr$_3$ crystal undergoes a decay chain, producing…
The DEAP-1 low-background liquid argon detector was used to measure scintillation pulse shapes of electron and nuclear recoil events and to demonstrate the feasibility of pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) down to an electron-equivalent…
A potential source of dominant backgrounds for many rare-event searches or screening detectors is from radon daughters, specifically $^{210}$Pb, deposited on detector surfaces, often during detector fabrication. Performing a late-stage etch…
In 2006 Mom\v{c}ilovi\'c et al. measured radioactvity levels of 210Po and 210Bi by alpha- and beta-measurements resp. to determine the natural distribuion of environmental radon daughters in the different brain areas of an Alzheimer Disease…
The alpha decay of $\n{{}^{210}Po}$ is a dangerous background to rare event searches. Here, we describe observations related to this alpha decay in the Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST). We find that…
For the first time a PbWO4 crystal was grown using ancient Roman lead and it was run as a cryogenic detector. Thanks to the simultaneous and independent read-out of heat and scintillation light, the detector was able to discriminate…
We present a simplified yet sophisticated variation to localised surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, which makes use of naked or non-functionalised, nanoparticle templates. These nanoparticle templates, produced with a rapid and…
The experimental detection of the CE$\nu$NS allows the investigation of neutrinos and neutrino sources with all-flavor sensitivity. Given its large content in neutrons and stability, Pb is a very appealing choice as target element. The…
In the framework of rare event searches, the identification of radioactive contaminants in ultra-pure samples is a challenging task, because the signal is often at the same level of the instrumental background. This is a rather common…
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…
The Backward Angle Neutron Detector (BAND) of CLAS12 detects neutrons emitted at backward angles of $155^\circ$ to $175^\circ$, with momenta between $200$ and $600$ MeV/c. It is positioned 3 meters upstream of the target, consists of $18$…