Status of GENIUS-TF-II and TF-III - The long-term stability of naked detectors in liquid nitrogen

GENIUS-TF-II is a setup of six naked high purity Ge detectors (15 kg) in liquid nitrogen in Gran Sasso. It has been installed in October, 2004-after the first four naked Ge detectors had been installed on May 5, 2003 (GENIUS-TF-I). The GENIUS-Test-Facility (GENIUS-TF) is the first and up to now only setup ever testing the novel technique aiming at extreme background reduction in search for rare decays in particular underground. The goal of GENIUS-TF was to test some key operational parameters of the full GENIUS project proposal in 1997 [H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 13 (1998) 3953; HN. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, J. Hellmig, M. Hirsch, GENIUS-Proposal, 20 November 1997; J. Hellmig and HN. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, Z. Phys. A 359 ( 1997) 351 and nucl-ex/ 9801004; HN. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, M. Hirsch, Z. Phys. A 359 (1997) 361; HN. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, J. Hellmig, M. Hirsch, J. Phys. G 24 (1998) 483; HN. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, CERN Courier, November 1997, pp. 16-18]. Simultaneous physical goal is to search for the annual modulation of the Dark Matter signal [H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 481 (2002) 149; C. Tomei, A. Dietz, 1. Krivosheina, H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. 508 (2003) 343]. After operation of GENIUS-TF over three years with finally six naked Ge detectors (15 kg) in liquid nitrogen in Gran Sasso we realize serious problems for realization of a full-size GENIUS-like experiment: (1) Background from Rn-222 diffusing into the setup, on a level far beyond the expectation. (2) Limited long-term stability of naked detectors in liquid nitrogen as result of increasing leakage current. None of the six detectors is running after three years with the nominal leakage current. Three of the six detectors do not work any more at all. The results of our three years of investigation of the long-term stability may cast doubt on the possibility to perform full GENIUS-like projects. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.