The Majorana Collaboration is building the Majorana Demonstrator, a 60 kg array of high purity germanium detectors housed in an ultra-low background shield at the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, SD. The Majorana Demonstrator will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge while demonstrating the feasibility of a tonne-scale experiment. It may also carry out a dark matter search in the 1-10 GeV/c² mass range. We have found that customized Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detectors produced by Canberra have several desirable features for a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment, including low electronic noise, excellent pulse shape analysis capabilities, and simple fabrication. We have deployed a customized BEGe, the Majorana Low-Background BEGe at Kimballton (MALBEK), in a low-background cryostat and shield at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility in Virginia. This paper will focus on the detector characteristics and measurements that can be performed with such a radiation detector in a low-background environment.
Revised: July 27, 2015 |
Published: October 1, 2011
Citation
Aalseth C.E., M. Amman, F.T. Avignone, H.O. Back, A.S. Barabash, P.S. Barbeau, and M. Bergevin, et al. 2011.Astroparticle physics with a customized low-background broad energy Germanium detector.Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 652, no. 1:692-695.PNNL-SA-87163.doi:10.1016/j.nima.2010.08.100