PureCuAlloys · Ultra-pure, high-strength, electroformed Cu-based alloys for next generation rare-event searches

PureCuAlloys will advance our understanding of the Cosmos by enabling novel, extremely sensitive, experimental searches for dark matter and neutrinoless double-β decay. Discovery potential of next-generation detectors is limited by contaminants introduced during manufacturing. Electroformed copper is extremely radiopure, but it is highly ductile and of low strength. PureCuAlloys addresses this challenge by designing radiopure CuCr and CuCrTi alloys with enhanced mechanical properties. The multi-scale modelling framework developed by the fellow offers new insights and identified research gaps: limited property knowledge for the binary and ternary systems of interest, and insufficient in-situ data for in-depth validation. PureCuAlloys will address these gaps, enabling rapid progress in designing application-specific alloys, and showcase the impact by components manufacturing for DarkSPHERE-30, a fully-electroformed detector that will break new ground in sub-GeV particle dark matter searches. This materials design approach has wide applications, accelerating alloy development when fabrication and property enhancement depend critically on thermodynamic and kinetic processes. PureCuAlloys will push the boundaries in many fields: from fundamental science to industrial applications.