Discrimination between nuclear recoils and electron recoils by simultaneous detection of phonons and scintillation light

We have developed a detector, consisting of a cryogenic calorimeter with a scintillating crystal as an absorber, and a second calorimeter for the dete ction of scintillation light, both operated at 12 mK. Using a CaWO4 crystal with a mass of 6 g as the scintillating absorber, we have achieved a discr imination between nuclear recoils and electron recoils with a suppression f actor of 99.7% at energies above 15 keV. This method will be applied for ba ckground rejection in the CRESST dark matter search (Cryogenic Rare Event S earch with Superconducting Thermometers). (C) 1999 American Institute of Ph ysics. [S0003-6951(99)00634-8].