Tagging and localization of ionizing events using NbSi transition edge phonon sensors for dark matter searches

In the context of direct searches of sub-GeV dark matter particles with germanium detectors, the EDELWEISS collaboration has tested a new technique to tag ionizing events using NbSi transition edge athermal phonon sensors. The emission of the athermal phonons generated by the Neganov-Trofimov-Luke effect associated with the drift of electrons and holes through the detectors is used to tag ionization events generated in specific parts of the detector localized in front of the NbSi sensor and to reject by more than a factor 5 [at 90% confidence level (CL)] the background from heat-only events that dominates the spectrum above 3 keV. This method is able to improve by a factor of 2.8 the previous limit on spin independent interactions of 1 GeV/c2 weakly interacting massive particles obtained with the same detector and dataset but without this tagging technique.