A rare opportunity

For the past three years, Anne-Marie Suriano has been working in the electroforming lab building copper for the Majorana experiment. It?s not something the Ph.D. student in Materials Science at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSMT) expected to be doing. 

?When I got to the School of Mines I realized I needed more chemistry,? she said. ?I talked with Cabot-Ann Christofferson about sitting in on some chemistry classes and she told me about this opportunity to work underground in an electroforming lab.? Christofferson teaches chemistry at SDSMT, is Liaison to Sanford Lab for the Majorana Demonstrator project and Deputy Task Leader of Electroforming. 

Suriano jumped at the chance to work in the electroforming lab?a decision that led to an unexpected opportunity. Recently, she applied for and received a grant that will allow her to pursue her research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. 

?I was super excited!? Suriano said. ?I?m a material scientist with minimal high-energy physics knowledge, so it?s rare that someone with my background would get a grant like this. It?s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.?

Suriano?s research focuses on creating a process to develop ultra radio-pure alloys that can serve as alternatives to the copper used in Majorana. She?s specifically looking at a copper-chrome alloy. These metals do not become radioactive as they decay. Creating a copper-chrome alloy is complicated because the two metals are on opposite ends of the voltage spectrum and won?t plate at the same time, Suriano said. ?Right now there?s no solution but I?m trying to change that.?

Scientist working in high-energy and nuclear physics need ultra pure materials, like copper, for their detectors, Suriano said. But copper is very malleable, and difficult to machine. It also can take more than a year to grow a half-inch plate onto a mandrel. ?A copper-chrome alloy would be thinner so it would require less material and take less time to plate,? Suriano said. Finally, she added, the alloy would be stronger and far less expensive to plate than the copper used in Majorana.

Suriano will begin working at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in early May to finish her Ph.D.