Elisabetta Baracchini (GSSI)
We are going to present the project for CYGNO, a gaseous TPC Dark Matter directional experiment, to be hosted at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. CYGNO (a CYGNus TPC with Optical readout) fits into the context of the wider CYGNUS international collaboration, for the development of a Galactic Nuclear Recoil Observatory at the ton scale with directional sensitivity. The most innovative CYGNO’s features will be the exploitation of sCMOS cameras and PMTs, coupled to GEMs amplification of an Helium-based gas mixture at atmospheric pressure. These choices are going to improve signal/noise ratio, thanks to the 1-2 e-/pixel noise of sCMOS and high GEMs gains, combined with full 3D reconstruction, including head-tail, exploiting the PMT signals. We will discuss the results of the Italian R&Ds with a 7 L detector prototype, with O(100) um spatial resolution over 20 cm drift distance. We will illustrate the synergy with the ERC Consolidator Grant project INITIUM and how the peculiar features of negative ion drift, possibly coupled to fast sCMOS sensors, could significantly improve and boost the chosen approach towards large scale detectors.