Cryostat for Ultra-low-energy Threshold Germanium Spectrometers

Understand

This paper presents progress on the development of a cryostat intended to improve upon the low-energy threshold (below 0.5 keV) of p-type point contact germanium gamma-ray spectrometers.

• Ultra-low energy thresholds are important in the detection of low-energy nuclear recoils, an event class relevant to both dark matter direct detection and measurement of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering.
• The cryostat design, including a thermal and electrical-field model, is given.
• A prototype cryostat has been assembled and data acquired to evaluate its vacuum and thermal performance.