Study on cosmogenic radioactive production in germanium as a background for future rare event search experiments

Yu-Lu Yan; Wei-Xin Zhong; Shin-Ted Lin; Jing-Jun Zhu; Chen-Kai Qiao; Lei Zhang; Yu Liu; Qian Yue; Hao-Yang Xing; Shu-Kui Liu

doi:10.1007/s41365-020-00762-1

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Study on cosmogenic radioactive production in germanium as a background for future rare event search experiments

ACCELERATOR, RAY AND APPLICATIONS | Updated：2021-01-26

- Study on cosmogenic radioactive production in germanium as a background for future rare event search experiments
- Nuclear Science and Techniques Vol. 31, Issue 6, Article number: 55(2020)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.College of Physics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
  2.School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 30071, China
  3.Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
  4.Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
- Author bio：
  
  Corresponding author: xhy@scu.edu.cn
  Corresponding author: xhy@scu.edu.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s41365-020-00762-1
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Yu-Lu Yan, Wei-Xin Zhong, Shin-Ted Lin, et al. Study on cosmogenic radioactive production in germanium as a background for future rare event search experiments. [J]. Nuclear Science and Techniques 31(6):55(2020)
DOI：

Yu-Lu Yan, Wei-Xin Zhong, Shin-Ted Lin, et al. Study on cosmogenic radioactive production in germanium as a background for future rare event search experiments. [J]. Nuclear Science and Techniques 31(6):55(2020) DOI： 10.1007/s41365-020-00762-1.

摘要

Abstract

Rare event search experiments are one of the most important topics in the field of fundamental physics, and high purity germanium (HPGe) detectors with an ultra-low radioactive background are frequently used for such experiments. However, cosmogenic activation contaminates germanium crystals during transport and storage. In this study, we investigated the movable shielding containers of HPGe crystals using Geant4 and CRY Monte Carlo simulations. The production rates of ,68,Ge,65,Zn,60,Co,55,Fe, and ,3,H were obtained individually for different types of cosmic rays. The validity of the simulation was confirmed through a comparison with the available experimental data. Based on this simulation, we found that the interactions induced by neutrons contribute to approximately 90% of the production rate of cosmogenic activation. In addition, by adding an optimized shielding structure, the production rates of cosmogenic radionuclides are reduced by about one order of magnitude. Our results show that it is feasible to use a shielding container to reduce the cosmogenic radioactivity produced during the transport and storage of high-purity germanium on the ground.

关键词

Keywords

High-purity germaniumShielding structureGeant4Transportation

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Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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