Growth and characterization of a Li2Mg2(MoO4)3 scintillating bolometer

physics.ins-det

/ Authors

F. A. Danevich, V. Ya. Degoda, L. L. Dulger, L. Dumoulin, A. Giuliani, P. de Marcillac, S. Marnieros, C. Nones, V. Novati, E. Olivieri

and 5 more authors

A. A. Pavlyuk, D. V. Poda, V. A. Trifonov, I. V. Yushina, A. S. Zolotarova

/ Abstract

Lithium magnesium molybdate (Li$_2$Mg$_2$(MoO$_4$)$_3$) crystals were grown by the low-thermal-gradient Czochralski method. Luminescence properties of the material (emission spectra, thermally stimulated luminescence, dependence of intensity on temperature, phosphorescence) have been studied under X-Ray excitation in the temperature interval from 8 K to 400 K, while at the same being operated as a scintillating bolometer at 20 mK for the first time. We demonstrated that Li$_2$Mg$_2$(MoO$_4)_3$ crystals are a potentially promising detector material to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{100}$Mo.