Physics (Internal)

The SENSEI Experiment: latest results and prospects for sub-GeV dark matter searches

This event is part of the HEE Seminar Series.

Fully-depleted charge-coupled devices (CCD) have proved to be an excellent technology to measure particle interactions with low-energy deposits. During the last 10 years, they have been successfully implemented in dark matter search experiments, being able to probe masses in the GeV scale. The recently developed Skipper-CCD technology has achieved sub-electron resolution, enhancing the sensitivity to detect processes with an even lower-energy transfer, and in turn, to explore the sub-GeV mass region. SENSEI (Sub-Electron Noise Skipper Experimental Instrument) is the first experiment to use Skipper-CCD sensors in dark matter searches and also the first one to publish world-leading sub-GeV dark matter results using this technology. In this seminar, I will present the SENSEI detector performance and recent results from the first year of data taking with a science grade Skipper-CCD operated in a low-radiation environment. I will also discuss the current status and future plans for SENSEI: a 100 g Skipper-CCD detector being deployed at SNOLAB.