Kang, Min Gyu Yan, Yongke Maurya, Deepam Song, Hyun-Cheol Yang, Lijuan Levine, Ilan Behnke, Edward Borsodi, Haley Fustin, Drew Nanda, Aman Collar, Juan I. Priya, Shashank 2024-01-19T08:01:56Z 2024-01-19T08:01:56Z 2024-01-18 2023-12 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/112995 Piezoelectric materials are used to fabricate acoustic transducers for bubble chambers in search for particles of dark matter. It has been shown that bubbles initiated by nuclear recoils emit acoustic radiation distinguishable from the phase transitions caused by alpha-decay the main background noise in such searches. However, these piezoelectric materials must exhibit ultralow radioactivity to minimize the neutron background for dark matter detection while possessing high acoustic sensitivity. Here, for the first time, we demonstrate radiopure high-performance piezoelectric ceramics meeting the criteria for acoustic sensing. The screening of radiopure precursors is performed to identify those with low U-238, Th-232, and Pb-210 contents. Using the radiopure precursors, piezoelectric ceramics with varying compositions are synthesized, and their electromechanical acoustic sensing performance is evaluated. Multiple synthesis modifications such as doping and texturing are utilized to tailor the piezoelectric coefficients of the piezoelectric ceramics, and the relationship between the piezoelectric coefficients and acoustic sensing performance of the ceramics is investigated. Acoustic transducers fabricated using textured Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) ceramics are found to exhibit superior acoustic sensitivity due to their high piezoelectric transduction coefficient (d(33) x g(33)). This study demonstrates a useful figure of merit (FOM) for acoustic sensing in bubble chambers. English AMER CHEMICAL SOC High-Acoustic Sensitivity Radiopure Piezoelectric Materials for Dark Matter Detection Article 10.1021/acsaelm.3c01116 1 ACS Applied Electronic Materials, v.5, no.12, pp.6595 - 6602 ACS Applied Electronic Materials 5 12 6595 6602 N scie scopus 001132952100001 2-s2.0-85180117985 Engineering, Electrical & Electronic Materials Science, Multidisciplinary Engineering Materials Science Article PBTIO3 piezoelectric ceramics texturing acoustic sensing radiopure dark matter bubble chamber