The low temperature performance of CsI(Na) crystals for WIPMs direct searches

Abstract

Previous studies showed that CsI(Na) crystals have significantly different waveforms between alpha and gamma scintillations. In this work, the light yield and PSD capability of CsI(Na) scintillators as a function of the temperature down to 80 K has been studied. As temperature drops, the fast component rises and the slow component decreases. By cooling the CsI(Na) crystals, the light yield of high ionization events are enhanced significantly, while the light yield of background gamma events are suppressed. At 110 K, CsI(Na) crystal achieves the optimal balance between low threshold and good background rejection performance. The different responses of CsI(Na) to gamma and alpha at different temperatures are explained with self-trapped and activator luminescence centers.