Results of the NEMO-3 experiment and Low-radioactivity measurements for SuperNEMO with the BiPo detector
Abstract
The main goal of the SuperNEMO collaboration is to search for neutrinoless double-β decay. This would prove that the neutrino is a Majorana particle (ν = ν¯). Today the best lower limits on half-lives of this process are set around 1024 - 1026 years as obtained by the NEMO-3 experiment (for the 2β isotope 100Mo) and other experiments. Several analyses are still ongoing, studying the different isotopes used for NEMO-3: 100Mo, 82Se, 96Zr, 150Nd, 48Ca, 116Cd. SuperNEMO is the next generation experiment based on the NEMO-3 tracker-calorimeter detection principle. Given the rareness of the processes studied here, the lowest possible levels of background are required. These levels are too low to be reached using non destructive techniques such as High Purity Germanium detectors. A new type of detector has been constructed, BiPo-3, targeting activities lower than can be achieved through γ spectrometry. This detector is designed to measure contaminations in 208Tl (around few μBq/kg) and 214Bi (few dozen μBq/kg) in thin materials. BiPo-3 has been fully operational at the Laboratorio Subterra'neo de Canfranc (LSC, Spain) since January, 2013. The NEMO-3 experiment, the status of the current analysis on 96Zr and the results on 100Mo and 82Se will be presented. The BiPo-3 detector will be described along with the radiopurity requirements for SuperNEMO source foils measurements.