Ricerc@Sapienza

The research work I propose will be performed in the framework of the CUPID project, a next generation experiment aiming at the search of neutrinoless double beta decay of 100-Mo with a ton-scale array of Li2MoO4 crystals operated as scintillating bolometers. An appropriate choice of the materials is crucial to accomplish the CUPID background level goal of >10^-4 cts/keV/kg/yr. This is true for any other experiment searching for rare events.
The aim of this research is to characterize the background of two batches of four 45x45x45 mm Li2MoO4 crystals produced with newly synthesized molybdenum powders at different purity levels, never tested before, with the final outcome of choosing the most suitable for the realization of the CUPID detectors. A detailed identification and quantification of the radioactive contamination of these scintillating bolometers paves the way for any other future experiment willing to adopt molybdenum powders. Another important outcome of the research I will perform concerns the high sensitivity measurement of the surface contamination by exploiting the coincidences among different detectors, profiting from an experimental setup where the crystals will be arranged in a compact array of 4 crystals. The bolometers will be instrumented with light detectors, to take advantage from the different light signal produced by alpha and beta/gamma particles to perform a background rejection via particle identification.