Purification and recovery of (MoO3)-Mo-100 in crystal production for AMoRE experiment

Abstract

© 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab. The AMoRE collaboration searches for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of Mo-100 with ultra-radiopure molybdate crystals operated as low-temperature scintillating bolometers. For such a rare event search experiment, the techniques for investigating and reducing radioactive background contaminants in detector materials are extremely crucial. This paper discusses techniques for deep purification of enriched molybdenum for growing the crystals and the recovery of (MoO3)-Mo-100 from the residual melt left after growing lithium molybdate crystals. The purities of enriched molybdenum trioxide powders before and after the purification and that of the recovered powder were tested with ICP-MS; results of these tests are presented