Low Temperature Detectors for Neutrino Physics
University of Milano-Bicocca / INFN Milano Bicocca Group WEB page
CUORE is an international experiment to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te using an array of TeO2 low temperature detectors. The experiment is in construction at the LNGS underground laboratories.
The CUORE detector will be made of 988 TeO2 crystals and will need a base temperature lower than 10 mK in order to meet the performance specifications. To cool the CUORE detector a large cryogen-free cryostat with five pulse tubes and one specially designed high-power dilution refrigerator has been designed. The detector assembly has a total mass of about 1.5 ton and uses a vibration decoupling suspension system. Because of the stringent requirements regarding radioactivity, about 12 tons of lead shielding need to be cooled to 4K and below, and only a limited number of construction materials are acceptable.
The many stringent and contrasting requirements together with the overall large size made the design of the CUORE cryogenic system a real mechanical and cryogenic engineering challenge. The cryogenic system is presently being assembled and tested at the LNGS. The cryogenic system is expected to be fully operational in the Gran Sasso Laboratory in 2014.
The Cryogenic Detector Laboratory supports the CUORE cryogenic system with many activities:
- Pulse Tube testing
- Materials low temperature characterization
- Thermometer calibration
- CUORE Wiring system design and testing
Other research acitivities are devoted to the detector developments necessary for an experiment beyond CUORE (e.g. CUPID).
CUORE Cryogenic Activities in the Laboratory
CUORE Cryogenic System commissioning and testing
