https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20136501002
Search for rare processes with ZnWO4 crystal scintillators
1 INFN sezione Roma ’Tor Vergata’ , I-00133 Rome, Italy
2 Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma ’Tor Vergata’, I-00133 Rome, Italy
3 INFN sezione Roma, I-00185 Rome, Italy
4 Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma ’La Sapienza’, I-00185 Rome, Italy
5 INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, I-67100 Assergi (AQ), Italy
6 Institute for Nuclear Research, MSP 03680 Kyiv, Ukraine
Published online: 10 January 2014
Radiopure ZnWO4 crystal scintillators with mass (0.1–0.7 kg) have been developed and put inmeasurement in the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the INFN to search for rare processes. The radioactive contamination of the crystals have been estimated and the double beta decay of zinc and tungsten isotopes was searched for, reaching a sensitivity at the level of 1018−1021 yr; in addition a new half-life limit on alpha transition of 183W to the metastable excited level of 179Hf has also been obtained. The achieved radiopurity of the ZnWO4 crystals make them very promising detectors for ββ decay investigations while their anisotropic features make them very interesting detectors to investigate dark matter particles directionality.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
