Speaker
Julian Cuevas-Zepeda
(University of Chicago)
Description
We report a measurement of the ionization efficiency of silicon nuclei recoiling with sub-keV kinetic energy in the bulk silicon of a skipper charge-coupled device (CCD). This energy range is relevant for the detection of low-mass dark matter particles. Nuclear recoils are produced by low-energy neutrons (<24 keV) from a $^{124}$Sb-$^{9}$Be photoneutron source, and their ionization signal is measured down to $\sim$11 eV electron equivalent. Differences with respect to recent measurements in silicon with similar thresholds are discussed. This measurement demonstrates the sensitivity to nuclear recoils of skipper CCDs employed by DAMIC-M, a dark matter direct detection experiment located in the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane.
Authors
Julian Cuevas-Zepeda
(University of Chicago)
Prof.
Paolo Privitera
(University of Chicago)
Rachana Yajur
Co-authors
Danielle Norcini
(Johns Hopkins University)
Radomir Smida
(The University of Chicago)
