Nuclear recoil calibration of SuperCDMS HVeV detectors using a neutron scattering setup

The SuperCDMS experiment has been developing silicon and germanium detectors optimized for phonon signals from dark matter-nucleus collisions. The detectors are sensitive to dark matter masses between about 1 and 10 GeV/c^2, which corresponds to sub-keV energy deposits from the nuclear recoil signal. The sensitivity of a SuperCDMS HVeV detector is achieved by applying a high voltage across the crystal. Under the electric field, the signal from electron-hole pairs generated from nuclear recoil events is amplified through the Neganov-Trofimov-Luke (NTL) effect. However, the yield of electron-hole pairs, which is critical to reconstructing the energy of the recoiling nucleus, is not well characterized in the sub-keV nuclear recoil energy region. I will describe a neutron scattering experiment designed to measure the ionization yield in SuperCDMS style detectors.