22.11.2024R&D of neutrino and dark matter detectors read out by microscopy featured in "Physics Today"

"What if a mineral could reveal what it’s seen over the millions—or billions—of years it’s been sitting deep within Earth? An interdisciplinary global network of scientists is reviving efforts to unlock the secrets that minerals hold."

In this article, Physics Today journalist Toni Feder describes the efforts of a U.S.-European multi-institutional initiative, including our group, to detect dark matter and learn more about neutrinos. The article details our work on imaging color centers in transparent crystals using the state of the art microscope mesoSPIM.

This work is the focus of the UZH Postdoc grant awarded to our group member Gabriela Araujo and is performed in close collaboration with mesoSPIM developer Dr. Nikita Vladimirov from the URPP Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning department, and Prof. Patrick Huber from Virginia Tech. Key measurements described in the article, such as fluorescent tracks induced by alpha particles and neutrons in transparent crystals, were recently presented by Araujo on behalf of the PALEOCCENE team at the Applied Antineutrino Physics Workshop 2024, and will soon be published in an upcoming paper.