| dc.description.abstract | It is now evident that the majority of matter in our universe is composed of non-luminous dark matter. However, the nature of this dark matter remains mysterious. The most promising candidates for dark matter include axions and weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Current leading direct search experiments like SuperCDMS and LUX are located deep underground to shield against cosmic rays. They utilize extremely sensitive detectors to directly detect dark matter interacting with normal matter. Current experiments have quite poor sensitivity to detect low mass dark matter candidates due to the fact that the threshold of current detectors is not low enough. Low threshold detection techniques can also help study coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. As a result, new detection principles with a lower threshold are needed. Different materials such as silicon, germanium, xenon, etc. have been used as detectors and work well in the projects mentioned above, but searching for new detector materials could open the door to low threshold detection. Single-molecule magnet (SMM) has long been known and researched.
One of its most interesting phenomena is the magnetic avalanche. In this work, we tested the idea of using SMM materials to detect particles. The experiment was operated in a cryogenic refrigerator at a temperature as low as 0.5 Kelvin, since magnetic avalanches can only happen at cryogenic temperatures. The main purpose is to prove the concept that magnetic avalanches can be triggered by the scattering of particles. Our data showed that high energy alpha particles were able to ignite magnetic avalanches in Mn12- acetate, one kind of SMM material. With the long list of different kinds of SMMs, and the ability to synthesize new kinds according to our needs, it will be a promising way to detect dark matter, neutrinos, or other low energy particle interactions. | en |
