Investigation of the molybdenum oxide purification for the AMoRE experiment

Abstract

The presented study reports on the purification of molybdenum oxide, which is one of the important tasks of the Advanced Mo based Rare process Experiment in searching for the neutrinoless double beta (0 nu beta beta) decay of Mo-100. Purified MoO3 powder is used as initial material for further growth of radiopure monocrystals. As purification technique, double sublimation, co-precipitation with calcium chloride carrier, and precipitation of polyammonium molybdate from acidic media were used. Concentrations of impurities like Sr, Ba, Pb, Th and U were measured by ICP-MS and radioactive isotopes were checked by a HPGe detector at the YangYang underground Laboratory in Korea