Seminar

"I will present recent progress in the development of low noise pixelated charge sensors and their applications in dark matter searches and neutrino physics. First, I will introduce the DAMIC program, which employs large area, thick charge-coupled devices (CCDs) to search for the interactions of low-mass dark matter particles in the galactic halo with silicon atoms in the CCD target. I will review recent results from the DAMIC at SNOLAB experiment, and the progress toward DAMIC-M: a large array of skipper CCDs to acquire kg-year exposures with an unprecedentedly low ionization threshold. Then, I will discuss R&D progress toward the Selena experiment, which aims to exploit the exquisite particle imaging capabilities of CMOS sensors coupled to thick amorphous Se-82 target layers for zero-background spectroscopy of 𝛽𝛽 decay and solar neutrinos."

Álvaro Chavarría is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and the Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics (CENPA) at the University of Washington, Seattle.  His research is on the search for dark matter with CCDs and neutrinoless ββ decay. He is the spokesperson of the DAMIC@SNOLAB collaboration and the detector coordination of DAMIC-M. He is also the spoke person of SELENA an R&D program to develop hybrid amorphous ⁸²Se / CMOS imagers that can resolve with high spatial and energy resolution the tracks of the emitted electrons for unparalleled sensitivity to the signal (search for neutrino less double beta decay in ⁸²Se  → ⁸²Kr + 2e^-).