Speaker
Description
Cryogenic detectors are promising instruments for investigating neutrinoless double beta decay. The CROSS project (Cryogenic Rare-event Observatory with Surface Sensitivity) aims to advance bolometric techniques using $^{100}$Mo and $^{130}$Te. The final detector, ready for commissioning at the underground Canfranc Laboratory in Spain, consists of 36 Li₂MoO₄ and 6 TeO₂ crystals, most of which will be enriched in the relevant isotope. Each crystal is coupled to a light detector to enable effective alpha background discrimination. Signal enhancement via the Neganov-Trofimov-Luke effect, combined with fast signal rise times (~0.5 ms), helps suppress background from random coincidences of two-neutrino double beta decay events.
With 4.7 kg of $^{100}$Mo and a background index of 3.2×10⁻³ counts/(keV·kg·yr), CROSS aims—after two years of data taking—to reach a $^{100}$Mo half-life sensitivity of 9.3×10²⁴ years. This would probe the effective Majorana mass down to 130–210 meV, potentially setting the most stringent global limits for this isotope.
| Collaboration you are representing | CROSS |
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