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Li₂MoO₄ Crystals Grown by Low-Thermal-Gradient Czochralski Technique



Author(s)

Veronika Grigorieva¹, Vladimir Shlegel¹, Tatyana Bekker^2,3,4, Nina Ivannikova¹, Andrea Giuliani^5,6, Pierre de Marcillac⁵, Stefanos Marnieros⁵, Valentina Novati⁵, Emiliano Olivieri⁵, Denys Poda^5,7, Claudia Nones⁶, Anastasiia Zolotarova⁶ and Fedor Danevich⁷

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DOI:10.17265/2161-6221/2017.3-4.002

1. Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia
2. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia
3. Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia
4. Novosibirsk State Academy of Architecture and Arts, Novosibirsk 630099, Russia
5. CSNSM, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS/IN2P3, Universite Paris-Saclay, Orsay 91405, France
6. CEA Saclay, DSM/IRFU, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex 91191, France
7. Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv 03028, Ukraine

For the first time Li₂MoO₄ crystals, including samples enriched with isotope molybdenum-100 (¹⁰⁰Mo), were grown by Czochralski technique at low-thermal-gradient conditions (LTG Cz), which allowed obtaining crystals of record size and quality. Dependence between growth rate, growth mechanism and crystal faceting was established. Low temperature tests of the produced Li₂MoO₄ and Li₂ ¹⁰⁰MoO₄ scintillating bolometers have demonstrated high performance of the detectors in terms of energy resolution and particle discrimination ability. Radioactive contamination of the Li₂MoO₄ and Li₂ ¹⁰⁰MoO₄ crystal scintillators produced from selected initial materials after double crystallization was tested in low background underground conditions. The achieved radiopurity level satisfies the requirements of the next generation large scale double beta decay experiments.

Low-Thermal-Gradirent Czochralski technique, scintillation crystals, cryogenic bolometers, rare events search.