New ideas on prospective low energy threshold detectors for dark matter searches

Abstract

Low energy threshold detectors are necessary in many frontier fields of experimental physics. In particular, these are extremely important for probing possible dark matter (DM) candidates. We present a novel detection approach that exploits the energy levels of atoms maintained at cryogenic temperature. We exploit laser-assisted transitions that are triggered by the absorption of the incident particle in the material and lead to the emission of a fluorescent photon or an electron. In this approach, the incident particle will in fact excite the first low-lying energy level that is then up-converted using an opportune narrow-band laser system. Two different detection schemes are thus possible in our active material: one is based on a photon signal while the other takes advantage of high efficiency in-vacuum charge detection.