Study of the Properties of GSO:Ce for Applications in Dual-bolometers

GSO:Ce (Gd 2 SiO 5 :Ce) features excellent luminescence properties and high stopping power; thus, it is a potential absorption medium for phonon-scintillation simultaneous detection bolometers (dual-bolometers). A possible application of a GSO:Ce dual-bolometer is to probe the neutrinoless double beta decay of 160 Gd isotopes. The particle-discrimination performance of dual-bolometers mainly depends on the scintillator's luminescence property and quenching factor at low temperatures. In this work, these properties of GSO:Ce are measured with light detectors at low temperatures. GSO:Ce shows a significant quenching effect down to 30K, indicating GSO:Ce is a potential option for dual-bolometers. The expected performance of the GSO:Ce dual-bolometer is studied with Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation results show that the dominant radioactive background can be effectively suppressed and the expected upper limit of the half-life time of 160 Gd is calculated.