Using Fiber Optics to Measure Carrier Drift Velocity of Germanium at 40mK

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) uses ultrapure germanium detectors at milliKelvin temperatures to attempt to directly detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a candidate for dark matter. When some particle interacts with the crystal structure, ionization and phonon signals are produced. Each particle interaction gives off a unique ratio of ionization signal to phonon signal. In this way, background noise can be separated from events that may involve WIMPs. Current germanium detectors are about the size of a hockey puck. If detectors can be made larger, there would be a greater probability of having a WIMP interaction. To make larger detectors, we need to better understand carrier transport processes in the germanium detectors. So, we measured the carrier drift velocity at 40milliKelvin, the temperature at which detectors operate. The carrier drift velocity gives us insight into how much impurity is present in the germanium detectors. We made this measurement using a fiber optics line. The fiber optics line allowed us to carry light from a 780nm laser diode at room temperature, into our dilution refrigerator and onto a germanium detector at 40milliKelvin. A laser diode allowed us to create electron-hole pairs on the surface of a germanium detector in a much more precise way than a radiation source.