Speaker
Scott Hertel
Description
We present the HeRALD detector concept, a staged path to meV nuclear recoil thresholds. The proposal centers on a 4He target at mK temperatures, which allows long-range ballistic propagation of the superfluid’s phonon and roton excitions. On reaching a liquid-vacuum interface, such kinetic excitations liberate 4He atoms via a one-to-one process, and this signal channel of liberated atoms is then sensed via its adsorption energy onto large-area low-threshold calorimetery. We describe past R&D on this technique, along with sensitivity projections assuming various levels of technical advancement.
