Contribution of the electron-phonon interaction to Lindhard energy partition at low energy in Ge and Si detectors for astroparticle physics applications

The influence of the transient thermal effects on the partition of the energy of selfrecoils in germanium and silicon into energy eventually given to electrons and to atomic recoils respectively is studied. The transient effects are treated in the frame of the thermal spike model, which considers the electronic and atomic subsystems coupled through the electron - phonon interaction. For low energies of selfrecoils, we show that the corrections to the energy partition curves due to the energy exchange during the transient processes modify the Lindhard predictions. These effects depend on the initial temperature of the target material, as the energies exchanged between electronic and lattice subsystems have different signs for temperatures lower and higher than about 15 K. Many of the experimental data reported in the literature support the model.

Analysis of defect formation in semiconductor cryogenic bolometric detectors created by heavy dark matter

The cryogenic detectors in the form of bolometers are presently used for different applications, in particular for very rare or hypothetical events associated with new forms of matter, specifically related to the existence of Dark Matter. In the detection of particles with a semiconductor as target and detector, usually two signals are measured: ionization and heat. The amplification of the thermal signal is obtained with the prescriptions from Luke-Neganov effect. The energy deposited in the semiconductor lattice as stable defects in the form of Frenkel pairs at cryogenic temperatures, following the interaction of a dark matter particle, is evaluated and consequences for measured quantities are discussed. This contribution is included in the energy balance of the Luke effect. Applying the present model to germanium and silicon, we found that for the same incident weakly interacting massive particle the energy deposited in defects in germanium is about twice the value for silicon.

Interactions of exotic particles with ordinary matter

Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and strangelets are two classes of exotic particles not yet discovered, and in agreement with theoretical scenarios most probably produced in different early stages of evolution of the Universe. Some peculiarities of their energy loss in the electronic and nuclear interactions with ordinary matter are investigated. For the direct detection of WIMPs the signals produced by the stopping of recoils in matter are used for their identification. The influence of the orientation of the recoil in respect to crystal axes for crystalline silicon (as material for detectors) is analysed as average quantities: energy loss, and as transient thermal effects. For strangelets, the mechanisms of picking-up neutrons during their penetration into matter and the effects on electronic and nuclear stopping are considered. The clarification of the aspects related to the stopping of these hypothetical particles in matter will permit a better interpretation of some experimental results and could also contribute to the search for new techniques or materials for their detection, if they exist.

Transient thermal effects in solid noble gases as materials for the detection of Dark Matter

The transient phenomena produced in solid noble gases by the stopping of the recoils resulting from the elastic scattering processes of WIMPs from the galactic halo were modelled, as dependencies of the temperatures of lattice and electronic subsystems on the distance to the recoils trajectory, and time from its passage. The peculiarities of these thermal transients produced in Ar, Kr and Xe were analysed for different initial temperatures and WIMP energies, and were correlated with the characteristics of the targets and with the energy loss of the recoils. The results were compared with the thermal spikes produced by the same WIMPs in Si and Ge. In the range of the energy of interest, up to tens of keV for the self-recoil, local phase transitions solid - liquid and even liquid - gas were found possible, and the threshold parameters were established.

Modelling the transient processes produced under heavy particle irradiation

A new model for the thermal spike produced by the nuclear energy loss, as source of transient processes, is derived analytically, for power law dependences of the diffusivity on temperature, as solution of the heat equation. The contribution of the ionizing energy loss to the spike is not included. The range of validity of the model is analysed, and the results are compared with numerical solutions obtained in the frame of the previous model of the authors, which takes into account both nuclear and ionization energy losses, as well as the coupling between the two subsystems in crystalline semiconductors. Particular solutions are discussed and the errors induced by these approximations are analysed.

Short remarks on possible production of defects in low temperature semiconductor detectors for dark matter physics experiments

The nature of dark matter is still an open problem, but there is evidence that a large part of the dark matter in the universe is non-baryonic, non-luminous and non-relativistic and hypothetical Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are candidates that satisfy all of the above criteria. In order to minimize the ambiguities in the identification of WIMPs interactions in their search, in more experiments, two distinct quantities are simultaneously measured: the ionization and phonon or light from scintillation signals. Silicon and germanium crystals are used in some experiments. In this paper we discuss the production of defects in semiconductors due to WIMP interactions and estimate their contribution in the energy balance. This phenomenon is present at all temperatures, is important in the range of keV energies, but is not taken into consideration in the usual analysis of experimental signals and could introduce errors in identification for WIMPs.

Energy loss and damage production by heavy ions and strange quark matter in silicon

In this contribution, the peculiarities of the behaviour of strange quark matter in respect to ordinary ions in silicon are investigated, and a tentative to identify possible observable effects of degradation is made.