The DAMIC-M Low Background Chamber
physics.ins-det
/ Authors
I. Arnquist, N. Avalos, P. Bailly, D. Baxter, X. Bertou, M. Bogdan, C. Bourgeois, J. Brandt, A. Cadiou, N. Castello-Mor
and 59 more authors
A. E. Chavarria, M. Conde, J. Cuevas-Zepeda, A. Dastgheibi-Fard, C. De Dominicis, O. Deligny, R. Desani, M. Dhellot, J. Duarte-Campderros, E. Estrada, D. Florin, N. Gadola, R. Gaior, E. -L. Gkougkousis, J. Gonzalez Sanchez, S. Hope, T. Hossbach, M. Huehn, M. Kallander, B. Kilminster, L. Iddir, A. Lantero-Barreda, I. Lawson,
/ Abstract
The DArk Matter In CCDs at Modane (DAMIC-M) experiment is designed to search for light dark matter (m$_χ$<10\,GeV/c$^2$) at the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (LSM) in France. DAMIC-M will use skipper charge-coupled devices (CCDs) as a kg-scale active detector target. Its single-electron resolution will enable eV-scale energy thresholds and thus world-leading sensitivity to a range of hidden sector dark matter candidates. A DAMIC-M prototype, the Low Background Chamber (LBC), has been taking data at LSM since 2022. The LBC provides a low-background environment, which has been used to characterize skipper CCDs, study dark current, and measure radiopurity of materials planned for DAMIC-M. It also allows testing of various subsystems like readout electronics, data acquisition software, and slow control. This paper describes the technical design and performance of the LBC.