Designing dark matter detection materials

by Dr Sinead Griffin (Berkeley / LBNL)

Tuesday 4 Dec 2018, 12:30 → 13:30 US/Pacific

Other Institutes

New discoveries in quantum information science and in dark matter detection rely on finding more sensitive detectors than those in state-of-the-art experiments. Traditional detector technologies, based on nuclear and electron scattering, have a lower bound on their sensitivity depending on the target's mass and bandgap. We investigate two classes of new low-threshold detector target materials -- Dirac electrons and optical phonons -- using first-principles calculations. We discuss how the dark matter/target interaction can be optimized using chemical and physical engineering, and present the target reach for these new dark matter detection proposals.