Speaker
Description
COSINUS is a cryogenic, low-background experiment at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, designed to provide a model-independent cross-check of the DAMA/LIBRA dark matter modulation claim. It operates ultrapure Sodium Iodide (NaI) crystals as dual-channel cryogenic calorimeters: the remoTES scheme reads out the phonon signal, and a surrounding silicon beaker read out with a traditional Transition Edge Sensor (TES) collects the scintillation light. The light-to-phonon ratio of each event discriminates nuclear recoils from electronic backgrounds. Prototypes have achieved a nuclear recoil energy resolution of 150 eV. With the custom dry cryostat and water Cherenkov muon veto commissioned, data-taking for the first phase of the experiment is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026.
We also report on PIRATES, the COSINUS-driven fabrication program at the Max Planck Halbleiterlabor (HLL) aimed at scaling remoTES sensor production onto 150 mm silicon wafers to establish the path for larger arrays needed beyond Phase 1.
