Neutrino detector device, neutrino detector system and method of detecting neutrinos

Abstract

A neutrino detector device (100) for detecting neutrinos comprises at least one target detector (10) including a target crystal (11) for creating phonons in response to an interaction of neutrinos to be detected with the target crystal (11) and a target temperature sensor (12) for sensing a temperature change in response to an absorption of phonons created in the target crystal (11), an inner veto detector (20) comprising at least one inner veto component (21) with an inner veto temperature sensor (23), wherein the at least one inner veto component (21) is adapted for supporting the at least one target detector (10) and for an anticoincidence based discrimination of alpha and beta background interaction events by creating phonons in response to the background interaction events and sensing a temperature change in response to an absorption of the phonons with the inner veto temperature sensor (23), and an outer veto detector (30) for accommodating the inner veto detector (20), wherein the outer veto detector (30) comprises at least one outer veto component (31) creating phonons in response to an interaction with gamma and neutron background and having an outer veto temperature sensor (33) for sensing a temperature change in response to an absorption of phonons created in the at least one outer veto component (31), wherein the neutrino detector device (100) is configured for an operation at cryogenic temperatures, a crystal volume of the target crystal (11) and a size of the target temperature sensor (12) of the at least one target detector (10) are selected such that an over-ground sensitivity threshold of the at least one target detector (10) is below 180 eV, and the at least one inner veto component (21, 26) surrounds the at least one target detector (10), so that the at least one target detector (10) is arranged within the inner veto detector (20). Furthermore, a neutrino detector system including the neutrino detector device and methods of detecting neutrinos are described, wherein the neutrino detector device (100) is used.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.