Production of 82Se enriched Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) crystals for the study of neutrinoless double beta decay

TL;DR

This paper details the production and quality assurance of high-purity, enriched 82Se Zinc Selenide crystals designed for neutrinoless double beta decay experiments, emphasizing purity, yield, and protocol standards.

Contribution

It introduces dedicated production lines and protocols for synthesizing and conditioning enriched 82Se ZnSe crystals with high purity and optimized yield for rare event physics.

Findings

High purity ZnSe crystals successfully produced with low radioisotope contamination.

Protocols ensure maximum yield of enriched 82Se in crystal production.

Crystals meet the purity and quality standards required for neutrinoless double beta decay research.

Abstract

High purity Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) crystals are produced starting from elemental Zn and Se to be used for the search of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0{\nu}DBD) of 82Se. In order to increase the number of emitting nuclides, enriched 82Se is used. Dedicated production lines for the synthesis and conditioning of the Zn82Se powder in order to make it suitable for crystal growth were assembled compliant with radio-purity constraints specific to rare event physics experiments. Besides routine check of impurities concentration, high sensitivity measurements are made for radio-isotope concentrations in raw materials, reactants, consumables, ancillaries and intermediary products used for ZnSe crystals production. Indications are given on the crystals perfection and how it is achieved. Since very expensive isotopically enriched material (82Se) is used, a special attention is given for acquiring the maximum yield in the mass balance of all production stages. Production and certification protocols are presented and resulting ready-to-use Zn82Se crystals are described.