Search for low-mass weakly interacting massive particles using voltage-assisted calorimetric ionization detection in the SuperCDMS experiment

SuperCDMS is an experiment designed to directly detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a favored candidate for dark matter ubiquitous in the Universe. In this Letter, we present WIMP-search results using a calorimetric technique we call CDMSlite, which relies on voltage-assisted Luke-Neganov amplification of the ionization energy deposited by particle interactions. The data were collected with a single 0.6 kg germanium detector running for ten live days at the Soudan Underground Laboratory. A low energy threshold of 170 eVee (electron equivalent) was obtained, which allows us to constrain new WIMP-nucleon spin-independent parameter space for WIMP masses below 6 GeV/c2
Funding and support were received from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, a Fermilab URA Visiting Scholar Award, NSERC Canada, and MULTIDARK. Fermilab is operated by the Fermi Research Alliance, LLC under Contract No. De-AC02- 07CH11359. SLAC is operated under Contract No. DEAC02- 76SF00515 with the United States Department of Energy