Differentiation of bulk and surface events in p-type point-contact germanium detectors for light WIMP searches

The p-type point-contact germanium detectors are novel techniques offering kg-scale radiation sensors with sub-keV sensitivities. They have been used for light dark matter WIMPs searches and may have potential applications in neutrino physics. There are, however, anomalous surface behaviour which needs to be characterized and understood. We describe the methods and results of a research program whose goals are to identify the bulk and surface events via software pulse shape analysis techniques, and to devise calibration schemes to evaluate the selection efficiency factors. Efficiencies-corrected background spectra from the low-background facility at Kuo-Sheng Neutrino Laboratory are derived. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.