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Characterization of mini-CryoCube detectors from the RICOCHET experiment commissioning at the Institut Laue-Langevin

A. Armatol1, C. Augier1, L. Bailly-Salins2, G. Baulieu1, L. Bergé3, J. Billard1, J. Blé2, G. Bres4, J-.L. Bret4 et al. (RICOCHET Collaboration)

J-.L. Bret4, A. Broniatowski3, M. Calvo4, A. Cavanna5, A. Cazes1, E. Celi6, D. Chaize1, M. Chala2, M. Chapellier3, L. Chaplinsky7, G. Chemin2, R. Chen6, J. Colas1, L. Couraud5, E. Cudmore8,*, M. De Jesus1, N. Dombrowski9, L. Dumoulin3, A. Durnez5, O. Exshaw4, S. Ferriol1, E. Figueroa-Feliciano6, J. A. Formaggio9, S. Fuard10, J. Gascon1, A. Giuliani3, C. Goy2, C. Guerin1, E. Guy1, L. Haegel1, S. A. Hertel7, C. Hoarau2, Z. Hong8, J.-C. Ianigro1, Y. Jin5, A. Juillard1, T. Khussainov11,†, A. Kubik8,‡, J. Lamblin2, H. Lattaud1, T. Le Bellec1, L. Leroy5, M. Li9, A. Lubashevskiy11,§, S. Marnieros3, N. Martini1, J. Minet4, A. Monfardini4, F. Mounier1, V. Novati2,∥, E. Olivieri3, P. K. Patel7, E. Perbet2, H. D. Pinckney9, D. V. Poda3, D. Ponomarev11,§, W. Van De Pontseele12, J.-S. Real2, F. C. Reyes9,¶, A. Rodriguez6, M. Rousseau2, S. Rozov11, I. Rozova11, B. Ryan9, D. Sabhari6, S. Scorza2, R. Serra10,2, Ye. Shevchik11, T. Soldner10, A. Stutz2, Ch. Ulysse5, L. Vagneron1, S. Vasilyev11, F. Vezzu2, P. Vittaz1, E. Yakushev11, J. Yang9, and D. Zinatulina11 (RICOCHET Collaboration)

  • *Contact author: elspeth.cudmore@mail.utoronto.ca
  • †Also at Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 1 Ibragimov Street, 050032, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
  • ‡Also at SNOLAB, Creighton Mine No. 9, 1039 Regional Road 24, Sudbury, Ontario P3Y 1N2, Canada.
  • §Also at Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 53 Leninskiy Prospect, 119991, Moscow, Russia.
  • ∥Contact author: valentina.novati@lpsc.in2p3.fr
  • Contact author: freyes@mit.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 112019 – Published 22 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7xy6-jq3c

Abstract

The Ricochet experiment aims to measure the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering process from antineutrinos emitted by a research nuclear reactor operated by the Institut Laue-Langevin (Grenoble, France). This article presents a description of the Ricochet experimental installation and the detector performance achieved during its commissioning with a mini-CryoCube module consisting of three 42-g germanium cryogenic calorimeters. The baseline resolutions and background levels are reported both during reactor-on and reactor-off periods and as noise mitigation techniques were improved. A baseline resolution of 40 eV electron equivalent was achieved for the ionization channel after setup improvements, and the phonon channel resolutions ranged from 50 to 80 eV of total phonon energy. In the energy region from 2 to 7 keV, a nuclear recoil rate of 14(3)  events/(kg day  keV) is measured during the reactor-off period selecting events in coincidence with muon veto signals. This rate is in agreement with the cosmogenic neutron rate calculated from GEANT4 simulations. After the rejection of events in coincidence with signals in the muon veto detectors, a combined 90% confidence level limit on the nuclear recoil background of <9  events/(kg day keV) is obtained in that energy region during the reactor-on period, which is compatible with our GEANT4 model calculation corresponding to a total rate of 5  events/(kg day keV). The sensitivity of this analysis was however found to be limited by a surface event contamination which is currently being addressed by the Ricochet Collaboration with upgraded detectors.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 112019– Published 22 December, 2025
  • Received 31 July 2025
  • Accepted 22 October 2025
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