Characterization of Spurious Charge in SENSEI Skipper-CCDs
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arXiv
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| Auteurs principaux: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866914614580609024 |
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| author | Wu, Yikai Desai, Ansh Uemura, Sho Botti, Ana M. Cervantes-Vergara, Brenda A. Chierchie, Fernando Drlica-Wagner, Alex Essig, Rouven Estrada, Juan Etzion, Erez Moroni, Guillermo Fernandez Gamero, Miqueas Holland, Stephen E. Lawson, Ian Luoma, Steffon Saffold, Nathan A. Sofo-Haro, Miguel Tiffenberg, Javier Volansky, Tomer |
| author_facet | Wu, Yikai Desai, Ansh Uemura, Sho Botti, Ana M. Cervantes-Vergara, Brenda A. Chierchie, Fernando Drlica-Wagner, Alex Essig, Rouven Estrada, Juan Etzion, Erez Moroni, Guillermo Fernandez Gamero, Miqueas Holland, Stephen E. Lawson, Ian Luoma, Steffon Saffold, Nathan A. Sofo-Haro, Miguel Tiffenberg, Javier Volansky, Tomer |
| contents | Skipper Charge-Coupled Devices (Skipper-CCDs) are a leading technology in the search for sub-GeV dark matter and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. A key background for rare-event searches with these detectors arises from "spurious charge" -- single-electron events generated when charges are transferred through the active region to the serial register, and across the serial register to the readout stage. We present a characterization of spurious charge in both the active region and the serial register of SENSEI Skipper-CCDs, and show that, in a well-shielded low-background environment, the dominant contribution originates in the serial register during Skipper readout, when horizontal clocks are held at constant voltage between pixel transfers. Motivated by this finding, we develop a "tri-level" clocking scheme in which the held-low phase is raised to an intermediate voltage during readout to suppress trap-mediated charge generation. Using the SENSEI detector near the MINOS cavern, we measure a serial-register single-electron density of $(2.9 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{-5}$ electrons/pixel/image under standard SENSEI readout conditions, reduced to $(4.0 \pm 0.4) \times 10^{-6}$ electrons/pixel/image with tri-level clocking -- a factor of $\sim$7 improvement. This technique offers a promising path to lower backgrounds in current and future Skipper-CCD experiments. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_30281 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Characterization of Spurious Charge in SENSEI Skipper-CCDs Wu, Yikai Desai, Ansh Uemura, Sho Botti, Ana M. Cervantes-Vergara, Brenda A. Chierchie, Fernando Drlica-Wagner, Alex Essig, Rouven Estrada, Juan Etzion, Erez Moroni, Guillermo Fernandez Gamero, Miqueas Holland, Stephen E. Lawson, Ian Luoma, Steffon Saffold, Nathan A. Sofo-Haro, Miguel Tiffenberg, Javier Volansky, Tomer Instrumentation and Detectors Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Experiment Skipper Charge-Coupled Devices (Skipper-CCDs) are a leading technology in the search for sub-GeV dark matter and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. A key background for rare-event searches with these detectors arises from "spurious charge" -- single-electron events generated when charges are transferred through the active region to the serial register, and across the serial register to the readout stage. We present a characterization of spurious charge in both the active region and the serial register of SENSEI Skipper-CCDs, and show that, in a well-shielded low-background environment, the dominant contribution originates in the serial register during Skipper readout, when horizontal clocks are held at constant voltage between pixel transfers. Motivated by this finding, we develop a "tri-level" clocking scheme in which the held-low phase is raised to an intermediate voltage during readout to suppress trap-mediated charge generation. Using the SENSEI detector near the MINOS cavern, we measure a serial-register single-electron density of $(2.9 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{-5}$ electrons/pixel/image under standard SENSEI readout conditions, reduced to $(4.0 \pm 0.4) \times 10^{-6}$ electrons/pixel/image with tri-level clocking -- a factor of $\sim$7 improvement. This technique offers a promising path to lower backgrounds in current and future Skipper-CCD experiments. |
| title | Characterization of Spurious Charge in SENSEI Skipper-CCDs |
| topic | Instrumentation and Detectors Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Experiment |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.30281 |