Scintillators for cryogenic applications: State-of-art

Abstract

The latest results on the low-temperature characterisation of scintillation materials selected for rare event search are reviewed. The temperature dependences of the light output and decay time are analysed on the basis of the current understanding of the underlying physical processes that control the emission of light in solids. It is shown that scintillation properties of the materials under study are adequate for the purpose of cryogenic experiments searching for rare events. From the analysis of the performance characteristics it is concluded that currently ZnWO4 is the most suitable scintillation target for dark matter search.