Abstract:
Searching for neutrino-less double beta decay with nEXO and Vacuum UV light sensors
The detection of neutrino-less double beta decay would show that neutrinos are their own anti-particle and enable assessing their absolute mass. The nEXO experiment is being designed to search for such decay of the 136^Xenon isotope following the success of the EXO-200 experiment that set competitive limits. Key to the success of the EXO suite of experiment is efficient detection of scintillation light in liquid Xenon that is required to achieve sufficient energy resolution, a key parameter for rejecting gamma-ray background. Silicon photo-multiplier sensitive to deep UV light (175nm scintillation light) were developed by the nEXO experiment in the last few years in order to address the shortcomings of the Avalanche Photo-diodes used in EXO-200. In this talk we will describe the EXO-200 and nEXO experiments. We will then discuss the Light only Liquid Xenon experiment (LoLX), being developed in Canada as a proof of concept demonstrating nEXO's light detection strategy. We will also describe the SiPM development effort including 3D integrated digital SiPMs being developed in Canada.