Radiopurity control in the NEXT-100 double beta decay experiment: procedures and initial measurements Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The "Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon Time-Projection Chamber" (NEXT) is intended to investigate the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe, which requires a severe suppression of potential backgrounds. An extensive screening and material selection process is underway for NEXT since the control of the radiopurity levels of the materials to be used in the experimental set-up is a must for rare event searches. First measurements based on Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry and gamma-ray spectroscopy using ultra-low background germanium detectors at the Laboratorio Subterr'aneo de Canfranc (Spain) are described here. Activity results for natural radioactive chains and other common radionuclides are summarized, being the values obtained for some materials like copper and stainless steel very competitive. The implications of these results for the NEXT experiment are also discussed. 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF INSTRUMENTATION

altmetric score

  • 9.5

author list (cited authors)

  • Alvarez, V., Bandac, I., Bettini, A., Borges, F., Carcel, S., Castel, J., ... Yahlali, N.

citation count

  • 41

complete list of authors

  • Alvarez, V||Bandac, I||Bettini, A||Borges, FIGM||Carcel, S||Castel, J||Cebrian, S||Cervera, A||Conde, CAN||Dafni, T||Dias, THVT||Diaz, J||Egorov, M||Esteve, R||Evtoukhovitch, P||Fernandes, LMP||Ferrario, P||Ferreira, AL||Freitas, EDC||Gehman, VM||Gil, A||Goldschmidt, A||Gomez, H||Gomez-Cadenas, JJ||Gonzalez-Diaz, D||Gutierrez, RM||Hauptman, J||Hernando Morata, JA||Herrera, DC||Iguaz, FJ||Irastorza, IG||Jinete, MA||Labarga, L||Laing, A||Liubarsky, I||Lopes, JAM||Lorca, D||Losada, M||Luzon, G||Mari, A||Martin-Albo, J||Martinez, A||Miller, T||Moiseenko, A||Monrabal, F||Monteiro, CMB||Mora, FJ||Moutinho, LM||Munoz Vidal, J||da Luz, H Natal||Navarro, G||Nebot-Guinot, M||Nygren, D||Oliveira, CAB||Ortiz de Solorzano, A||Palma, R||Perez, J||Perez Aparicio, JL||Renner, J||Ripoll, L||Rodriguez, A||Rodriguez, J||Santos, FP||dos Santos, JMF||Segui, L||Serra, L||Shuman, D||Simon, A||Sofka, C||Sorel, M||Toledo, JF||Tomas, A||Torrent, J||Tsamalaidze, Z||Vazquez, D||Veloso, JFCA||Villar, JA||Webb, RC||White, JT||Yahlali, N

publication date

  • January 2013