Eur. Phys. J. A (2019) 55: 127
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2019-12809-0

Special Article - New Tools and Techniques

Radiopurity of an archaeological Roman lead cryogenic detector

¹ Gran Sasso Science Institute, I-67100, L’Aquila, Italy
² Physik Department, Technische Universität München, D-85748, Garching, Germany
³ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA
⁴ INFN - Sezione di Milano - Bicocca, I-20126, Milano, Italy
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano - Bicocca, Milano, Italy
⁶ INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, I-67100, Assergi (L’Aquila), Italy
⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, 29208, Columbia, SC, USA

^* e-mail: luca.pattavina@lngs.infn.it

Received: 9 April 2019
Accepted: 21 June 2019
Published online: 14 August 2019

Abstract

Archaeological Roman lead (Pb) is known to be a suitable material for shielding experimental apparata in rare event searches. In the past years the intrinsic radiopurity of this material was investigated using different technologies. In this work we applied the latest advancements in cryogenic techniques to study the bulk radiopurity of a 1cm^3 sample of archaeological Roman Pb. We report the lowest ever measured limit on ²¹⁰Pb content in Roman Pb, with a concentration lower than 715μBq/kg. Furthermore, we also studied ²³⁸U and ²³²Th impurity concentrations. Our values concur with independent measurements reported in literature.