Athermal phonon collection efficiency in diamond crystals for low mass dark matter detection

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that lab-grown CVD diamond crystals are effective for low-mass dark matter detection, showing high phonon collection efficiency and good energy resolution, enabling exploration of sub-100 eV energy range.

Contribution

We introduced a novel method to quantify phonon dynamics in diamond crystals and showed that CVD diamonds outperform sapphire in phonon collection for dark matter detection.

Findings

CVD diamond crystals have superior athermal phonon collection efficiency.

Achieved an energy resolution of 62.7 eV at 8.05 keV.

Confirmed the low-energy excess below 100 eV in diamond detectors.

Abstract

We explored the efficacy of lab-grown diamonds as potential target materials for the direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter~(DM) using metallic magnetic calorimeters~(MMCs). Diamond, with its excellent phononic properties and the low atomic mass of the constituent carbon, can play a crucial role in detecting low-mass dark matter particles. The relatively long electron-hole pair lifetime inside the crystal may provide discrimination power between the DM-induced nuclear recoil events and the background-induced electron recoil events. Utilizing the the fast response times of the MMCs and their unique geometric versatility, we deployed a novel methodology for quantifying phonon dynamics inside diamond crystals. We demonstrated that lab-grown diamond crystals fabricated via the chemical vapor deposition~(CVD) technique can satisfy the stringent quality requirements for sub-GeV dark matter searches. The high-quality polycrystalline CVD diamond showed a superior athermal phonon collection efficiency compared to that of the reference sapphire crystal, and achieved energy resolution 62.7~eV at the 8.05~keV copper fluorescence line. With this energy resolution, we explored the low-energy range below 100~eV and confirmed the existence of so-called low-energy excess~(LEE) reported by multiple cryogenic experiments.