Status and prospects of SABRE North

Abstract

We present the characterization of a low background NaI(Tl) crystal for the SABRE North experiment. The crystal NaI-33, was studied in two different setups at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy. The Proof-of-Principle (PoP) detector was equipped with a liquid scintillator veto and collected data for about one month (90 kg$\times$days). The PoP-dry setup consisted of NaI-33 in a purely passive shielding and collected data for almost one year (891 kg$\times$days). The average background in the energy region of interest (1-6 keV) for dark matter search was 1.20 $\pm$ 0.05 and 1.39 $\pm$ 0.02 counts/day/kg/keV within the PoP and the PoP-dry setup, respectively. This result opens to a new shielding design for the physics phase of the SABRE North detector, that does not foresee the use of an organic liquid scintillator external veto, in compliance with the new safety and environmental requirements of Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso.