Characterization of pixilated Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride (CZT) Detector Sensitivity for Future Neutrinoless Double Beta (0$\nu \beta \beta )$ Decay Searches

The detection of 0$\nu \beta \beta $ decay provides an opportunity to determine whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles. Detecting 0$\nu \beta \beta $ decay requires very sensitive detectors with good energy resolution. Pixelization in CZT detectors promises to improve sensitivity by means of improving background rejection. Our studies focused on the response of a pixilated prototype CZT detector to evaluate improvements in sensitivity. We performed energy resolution measurements for a 16 pixel CZT detector in the 100keV to 1.3 MeV range. Common background sources were simulated and the measured energy resolutions were then incorporated to estimate detector sensitivities for a potential 0$\nu \beta \beta $ Cd-116 decay signal. In this talk we present the status of our research, preliminary results and offer an outlook on future work and challenges.