Observation of a Nuclear Recoil Peak at the 100 eV Scale Induced by Neutron Capture

Abstract

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and low-mass dark matter detectors rely crucially on the understanding of their response to nuclear recoils. We report the first observation of a nuclear recoil peak at around 112 eV induced by neutron capture. The measurement was performed with a CaWO₄ cryogenic detector from the NUCLEUS experiment exposed to a ²⁵²Cf source placed in a compact moderator. We identify the expected peak structure from the single-γ de-excitation of ¹⁸³W with 3σ and its origin by neutron capture with 6σ significance. This result demonstrates a new method for precise, in situ, and nonintrusive calibration of low-threshold experiments.