Mainz 2014 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 56: Dunkle Materie 3

T 56.7: Talk

Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 18:25–18:40, P11

Comprehensive Model for the Scintillation-Light Quenching in CaWO₄ Single Crystals — •Sabine Roth¹, Franz von Feilitzsch¹, Achim Gütlein¹, Walter Henning¹, Jean-Côme Lanfranchi¹, Andrea Münster¹, Walter Potzel¹, Stefan Schönert¹, Moritz von Sivers¹, Raimund Strauss², Andreas Ulrich¹, Stephan Wawoczny¹, Michael Willers¹, Marc Wüstrich², and Andreas Zöller¹ — ¹Physik Department E12/E15, TU-München, James-Franck-Str. 1, 85748 Garching — ²Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, Föhringer Ring 6, 80805 München

CRESST (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) aims at directly detecting the coherent scattering of dark matter particles on nuclei in low-temperature detectors based on CaWO₄ single crystals. For background suppression and particle identification, the phonon-light technique is utilized, employing the varying light yields (LYs) produced by different interacting particles depositing the same amount of energy. In order to understand and predict this quenching effect dependent on the type and energy of the interacting particle as well as on the crystal (defect density) and its temperature, we developed a theoretical model for the light generation and quenching in CaWO₄ crystals. For the first time, this model allows to calculate the LY and, thus, the Quenching Factor, on a microscopic basis.

This research was supported by the DFG cluster of excellence ’Origin and Structure of the Universe’, the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratorium (Garching) and the "Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Phyiscs".