Light Relative Efficiency Factors for ions in BGO and Al2O3 at 20 mK

Dark matter direct search experiments with scintillators need an accurate knowledge of Light Relative Efficiency Factors (REF) between electron and nuclear recoils to estimate the energy of the recoiling nuclei from the scintillation signal (if the light signal is used with this purpose) or to implement an effective background rejection based on the comparison of the scintillation with ionization or heat signals (if the light signal is used for particle discrimination). The Light REF between α and γ particles is required in some nuclear physics applications of scintillators like rare α decay searches, internal radiopurity assessment and some double beta decay searches. Two scintillating bolometers of BGO and Al₂O₃ were operated at 20 mK and exposed to fast neutrons, gamma rays, α particles and heavy nuclei. We measured their Light REF between γ and α particles and between electron and neutron induced nuclear recoils as a function of the deposited energy. We also measured the Light REF for O and Np ions in BGO. Results obtained for the different Light REFs were unsuccessfully compared with calculations based on a simple semi-empirical approach (with only one fitting parameter) proposed by Tretyak.