We report on experimental investigations of proton acceleration from solid foils irradiated with PW-class laser-pulses, where highest proton cut-off energies were achieved for temporal pulse parameters that varied significantly from those of an ideally Fourier transform limited (FTL) pulse. Controlled spectral phase modulation of the driver laser by means of an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter enabled us to manipulate the temporal shape of the last picoseconds around the main pulse and to study the effect on proton acceleration from thin foil targets. The results show that applying positive third order dispersion values to short pulses is favourable for proton acceleration and can lead to maximum energies of 70 MeV in target normal direction at 18 J laser energy for thin plastic foils, significantly enhancing the maximum energy compared to ideally compressed FTL pulses. The paper further proves the robustness and applicability of this enhancement effect for the use of different target materials and thicknesses as well as laser energy and temporal intensity contrast settings. We demonstrate that application relevant proton beam quality was reliably achieved over many months of operation with appropriate control of spectral phase and temporal contrast conditions using a state-of-the-art high-repetition rate PW laser system.

The CUORICINO experiment was an array of 62 TeO2 single-crystal bolometers with a total 130Te mass of 11.3kg. The experiment finished in 2008 after more than 3 yr of active operating time. Searches for both 0ν and 2ν double-β decay to the first excited 0+ state in 130Xe were performed by studying different coincidence scenarios. The analysis was based on data representing a total exposure of N(130Te)•t=9.5×1025yr. No evidence for a signal was found. The resulting lower limits on the half-lives are T122ν(130Te→130Xe*)>1. 3×1023yr (90% C.L.), and T120ν(130Te →130Xe*)>9.4×1023yr (90% CL). ©2012 American Physical Society.

We present a search for β+/EC double beta decay of 120Te performed with the CUORICINO experiment, an array of TeO2 cryogenic bolometers. After collecting 0.0573 kg · y of 120Te, we see no evidence of a signal and therefore set the following limits on the half-life: T1/20ν>1.9·1021 y at 90% C.L. for the 0ν mode and T1/22ν>7.6·1019 y at 90% C.L. for the 2ν mode. These results improve the existing limits by almost three orders of magnitude (four in the case of 0ν mode). © 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.

We report the final result of the CUORICINO experiment. Operated between 2003 and 2008, with a total exposure of 19.75 kg · y of 130Te, CUORICINO was able to set a lower bound on the 130Te 0νββ half-life of 2.8 × 1024 years at 90% C.L. The limit here reported includes the effects of systematic uncertainties that are examined in detail in the paper. The corresponding upper bound on the neutrino Majorana mass is in the range 300-710 meV, depending on the adopted nuclear matrix element evaluation. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.