SUPERHEATED SUPERCONDUCTING GRANULE DETECTOR TESTED WITH NUCLEAR RECOIL MEASUREMENTS

The presented results are part of a superheated superconducting granul e (SSG) detector development for neutrino and dark matter. The aim of the experiment was to measure the sensitivity of the detector to nucle ar recoil energies when exposed to a 70 MeV neutron beam. The detector consists of a small readout coil (diameter 5 mm, length 10 mm) filled with aluminum granules of average diameter 23 mum embedded in an Al2O 3 granulate with a 6% volume filling factor. The neutron scattering an gles were determined using a scintillator hodoscope. Coincidences betw een the SSG and the hodoscope signals have been clearly established. D ata were taken at an operating temperature of 120 mK for different SSG intrinsic thresholds. The results prove the sensitivity of the detect or to nuclear recoils around 10 keV.