Speaker
Description
SuperCDMS SNOLAB is a dark matter experiment currently under
construction and slated for installation in SNOLAB in 2019. SuperCDMS
SNOLAB will use cryogenic silicon and germanium detectors to search
for nuclear recoils produced by dark matter particles interacting in
the detectors. These nuclear recoils will produce both phonon
excitations and ionization (electron/hole pairs) in the detector,
which can be read out by sensitive elements on the surface of the
detector. Applying a voltage across the detector can amplify the
ionization signal into a large phonon signal through the conversion of
the charge carriers' kinetic energies into phonon vibrations, greatly
lowering the energy threshold of the experiment. This low energy
threshold will give SuperCDMS SNOLAB world-leading sensitivity for
dark matter particles with masses below ~10 GeV/c^2. SuperCDMS SNOLAB
can also search for hypothesized dark photons that produce electrons
in the detectors through an analog of the photoelectric effect. In
this talk I will review the scientific program of SuperCDMS SNOLAB,
its current status, and the latest science results from this unique
detection technology.
