Related papers: Superheated Microdrops as Cold Dark Matter Detecto…
We consider mid-infrared (5 to 25 micrometers), optically cooled detectors based on a microcantilever sensor of the radiation pressure. A significant enhancement of sensitivity is achieved due the combination of low effective temperature…
In some experiments and applications there is need for large-area photosensitive detectors to operate at cryogenic temperatures. Nowadays, vacuum PMs are usually used for this purpose. We have developed special designs of planar…
A promising technology concept for sub-GeV dark matter detection is described, in which low-temperature microcalorimeters serve as the sensors and superfluid $^4$He serves as the target material. A superfluid helium target has several…
Thermal detectors are a powerful instrument for the search of rare particle physics events. Inorganic crystals are classically used as thermal detectors held in supporting frames made of copper. In this work a novel approach to the…
R-134a (C2H2F4) is a low cost, easily available and chlorine free refrigerant, which in its superheated state can be used as an efficient neutron detector. Due to its high solubility in water the R-134a based superheated droplet detectors…
Superconducting targets have recently been proposed for the direct detection of dark matter as light as a keV, via elastic scattering off conduction electrons in Cooper pairs. Detecting such light dark matter requires sensitivity to…
We propose a new application of single molecule magnet crystals: their use as "magnetic bubble chambers" for the direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter. The spins in these macroscopic crystals effectively act as independent nano-scale…
There are several applications and fundamental research areas which require the detection of VUV light at cryogenic temperatures. For these applications we have developed and successfully tested special designs of gaseous detectors with…
Dark matter direct detection experiments are designed to look for the scattering of dark matter particles that are assumed to move with virial velocities $\sim 10^{-3}$. At these velocities, the energy deposition in the detector is large…
Probing low mass (sub-GeV -- few GeV) Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) candidates of dark matter through WIMP-induced nuclear recoils in direct detection experiments requires use of detector materials consisting of low mass target…
The superheated droplet detector (SDD) is known to be gamma insensitive below a threshold temperature which made them excellent candidates for neutron detection in the presence of gamma rays. Above the threshold temperature, the gamma ray…
The presented results are part of a feasibility study of a Super- heated Superconducting Granule (SSG) device for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) detection. The sensitivity of SSG to nuclear recoils has been explored…
We have designed and implemented a straightforward method to deterministically measure the temperature of the selected segment of a cold atom ensemble, and we have also developed an upgrade in the form of nondestructive thermometry. The…
We show that a two-excitation process in superfluid helium, combined with sensitivity to meV energy depositions, can probe dark matter down to the ~keV warm dark matter mass limit. This mass reach is three orders of magnitude below what can…
If the reheating temperature at the end of inflation is low, of order 10 MeV, then dark matter produced through ultraviolet freeze-in has a large direct detection cross section. We study such a scenario in which dark matter is hadrophilic.…
To reach ultra-low detection thresholds necessary to probe unprecedentedly low Dark Matter masses, target material alternatives and novel detector designs are essential. One such target material is superfluid $^4$He which has the potential…
We examine in depth a recent proposal to utilize superfluid helium for direct detection of sub-MeV mass dark matter. For sub-keV recoil energies, nuclear scattering events in liquid helium primarily deposit energy into long-lived phonon and…
We report an improved SIMPLE experiment comprising four superheated droplet detectors with a total exposure of 0.42 kgd. The result yields ~ factor 10 improvement in the previously-reported results, and -- despite the low exposure -- is…
Small cryogenic detectors with efficient background rejection now best longer established and heavier direct dark matter searches. This paper reviews the experiments, results and prospects.
The PICASSO project is a cold dark matter (CDM) search experiment relying on the superheated droplet technique. The detectors use superheated freon liquid droplets (active material) dispersed and trapped in a polymerized gel. This detection…