Molecular Dynamics Simulations on Nuclear Recoils in Silicon Crystals towards Single Electron-Hole Pair Ionization Yields

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to accurately evaluate nuclear recoil ionization yields in silicon, revealing fundamental insights into quenching factors and their dependence on crystal structure, with implications for dark matter detection.

Contribution

Introduces a novel molecular dynamics methodology for analyzing atomic transport and ionization yields in silicon without parameterization, improving understanding of quenching factors at low energies.

Findings

Achieves excellent agreement with experimental data at the single electron-hole pair level.

Identifies the influence of lattice binding and crystal orientation on quenching factors below 4 keV.

Determines a minimum exclusion mass of 0.29 GeV/c^2 for dark matter detection sensitivity.

Abstract

We have developed a novel methodology utilizing molecular dynamics simulations to evaluate the ionization yields of nuclear recoils in crystalline silicon. This approach enables analytical exploration of atomic-scale transport within the lattice without necessitating parameterization. The quenching factors across the nuclear recoil energy range from 20 eV to 10 keV have been thoroughly investigated. A remarkable agreement with experimental data is achieved, particularly for the minimal energy regime conducted to date, reaching the level of a single electron-hole pair. This work presents evidence of a crucial and fundamental distribution of the quenching factor, which can be associated to the collisional interactions underlying the transport phenomena. The region below 4 keV of the quenching factor, where discrepancies have been observed with the Lindhard's model, is found to be significantly attributed to the lattice binding effect and the specific crystal structure. In contrast, a gradual functional relationship is identified below approximately 100 eV, indicating that the quenching factor is influenced by the crystallographic orientation of the target material. From a distributional perspective, our analysis allows for the determination of the minimum exclusion mass for the dark matter nucleon elastic scattering channel at 0.29 $\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$, thereby significantly enhancing sensitivity for the sub-$\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ mass region.