Ion-Channeling in Direct Dark Matter Crystalline Detectors

Abstract

The channeling of the recoiling nucleus in crystalline detectors after a WIMP collision would produce a larger scintillation or ionization signal in direct detection experiments than otherwise expected. I present estimates of the importance of this effect in NaI, Si and Ge crystals, using analytic models developed from the 1960's onwards to describe channeling and blocking effects.