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Cosmogenic-neutron activation of TeO2 and implications for neutrinoless double-β decay experiments

B. S. Wang, E. B. Norman, N. D. Scielzo, A. R. Smith, K. J. Thomas, and S. A. Wender
Phys. Rev. C 92, 024620 – Published 27 August 2015
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  • INTRODUCTION
  • EXPERIMENTAL METHOD AND DATA ANALYSIS
  • COMPARING MEASURED AND CALCULATED CROSS…
  • COSMOGENIC-ACTIVATION BACKGROUND IN THE…
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    • References

    Abstract

    Flux-averaged cross sections for cosmogenic-neutron activation of natural tellurium were measured using a neutron beam containing neutrons of kinetic energies up to ∼800 MeV and having an energy spectrum similar to that of cosmic-ray neutrons at sea level. Analysis of the radioisotopes produced reveals that Ag110m will be a dominant contributor to the cosmogenic-activation background in experiments searching for neutrinoless double-β decay of Te130, such as the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Plus (SNO+). An estimate of the cosmogenic-activation background in the CUORE experiment has been obtained using the results of this measurement and cross-section measurements of proton activation of tellurium. Additionally, the measured cross sections in this work are also compared with results from semiempirical cross-section calculations.

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    • Received 27 February 2015

    DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.92.024620

    ©2015 American Physical Society

    Authors & Affiliations

    B. S. Wang1, E. B. Norman1,2, N. D. Scielzo2, A. R. Smith3, K. J. Thomas1,3, and S. A. Wender4

    • 1Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • 2Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA
    • 3Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • 4Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA

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    Vol. 92, Iss. 2 — August 2015

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    Images

    • Figure 1
      Figure 1

      Schematic of the target irradiated at LANSCE. The entire target is 6.2 cm long in the z direction. Each target component has cylindrical symmetry about the z axis. This drawing is not to scale. Details on each component are given in Table 1.

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    • Figure 2
      Figure 2

      LANSCE 30R neutron flux (red [gray]) [30] compared with the measured sea-level cosmic-ray-neutron flux (black) [31].

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    • Figure 3
      Figure 3

      Setup used during the γ-ray measurement of the TeO2 powder. Each component has cylindrical symmetry about the dashed line. This drawing is not to scale.

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    • Figure 4
      Figure 4

      Three-day-long γ-ray spectrum collected for the TeO2 powder four months after the neutron irradiation. (a) Full spectrum. (b) A region of the spectrum where 110mAg peaks were observed. Labeled peaks are associated with the decay of isotopes with Q values greater than the Qββ of Te130, i.e., 110mAg (red [gray] and bolded), Sb124 (blue [gray]), and Sb126 (black). Other peaks in the region are from the decays of Sb125,129mTe,Ag105, and 114mIn.

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    • Figure 5
      Figure 5

      Percent differences between the measured and simulated γ-ray efficiencies as a function of γ-ray energy. The simulated efficiencies were obtained using the adjusted values in Table 4. Points corresponding to total efficiencies are indicated with “(Total)” in the legend. All other points correspond to photopeak efficiencies.

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