Fabrication of thin planar radiopure foils with 82Se for the SuperNEMO Demonstrator

/ Authors

X. Aguerre, A. Barabash, A. Basharina-Freshville, M. Bongrand, C. Bourgeois, D. Breton, R. Breier, J. Busto, C. Cerna, J. Cesar

and 65 more authors

M. Ceschia, E. Chauveau, S. Capua, D. Duchesneau, J. Evans, D. Filosofov, M. Granjon, M. Hoballah, R. Hod'ak, J. Horkley, A. Jeremie, S. Jullian, J. Kaizer, A. Klimenko, O. Kochetov, F. Kovnavr'ik, S. Konovalov, T. Kvrivz'ak, A. Lahaie, K. Lang, Y. Lemière, T. Noblet, P. Li, P. Loaiza, J. Maalmi, M. Macko, F. Mamedov, C. Marquet, F. Mauger, A. Mendl, B. Morgan, I. Nemchenok, V. Paluvsov'a, C. Patrick, F. Perrot, M. Petro, F. Piquemal, P. Povinec, S. Pratt, M. Proga, W. Quinn, A. Rakhimov, Y. R. amachers, A. Remoto, N. Rukhadze, R. Saakyan, R. Salazar, J. Sedgbeer, Y. Shitov, L. Simard, F. vSimkovic, A. Smolnikov, S. Soldner-Rembold, I. Vstekl, J. Suhonen, H. Tedjditi, J. Thomas, V. Timkin, V. Tretyak, V. Tretyak, G. Turnbull, Y. Vereshchaka, G. Warot, D. Waters, V. Yumatov

/ Abstract

The SuperNEMO Demonstrator, designed to search for double beta decay using enriched 82Se, has been assembled in the Modane Underground Laboratory under the French Alps. Thin foils with radio - purified and enriched 82Se are installed centrally in the detector. A novel foil fabrication method has been developed, improving the radiopurity achieved in the previous generation experiment. It consists of wrapping standalone selenium pads in raw Mylar, combined with selenium purified by a new reverse-chromatography method. This paper describes the features of these foils, their fabrication process, the characterization results, and the integration of the foils into the SuperNEMO Demonstrator.