Highly sensitive bolometers for rare alpha decay studies

Abstract

High resolution detectors able to identify background events are very appealing in the study of rare nuclear processes. Scintillating bolometers featuring simultaneous read-out of heat and scintillation signals, can effectively address this problem thanks to the possibility to discriminate different ionizing particles and achieve background free experiments. With this technique it has already been possible to measure rare alpha decays never observed before or improve by orders of magnitude the existing limits.