Neutron scattering facility for the calibration of the response to nuclear recoils

A possibility to search for elementary particles as dark matter candidates is to detect elastic scattering with cryogenic detectors. For the interpretation of the data one has to determine the detector response to nuclear recoils, the so-called quenching factors. They can differ for the heat-, for the scintillation- and for the ionization-signal and can be measured by scattering of neutrons. The CRESST- and the EDELWEISS-collaborations have set up a neutron scattering facility for cryogenic detectors at the tandem-accelerator of the Munich ‘Maier-Leibniz-Labor.’ The scattering angle and the time-of-flight of the neutrons are measured by an array of liquid scintillator cells. The pulsed high energy (11 MeV) neutron beam is created by nuclear reaction of a 11B on a H2-gas target. The set-up and the results of first tests are presented.