Development of bubble chambers with sensitivity to WIMPs

Bubble nucleation in moderately superheated liquids can be triggered by nuclear recoils from WIMPs. This phenomenon is the basis for superheated droplet detectors. The droplet technique is currently limited by insensitivity to spin-independent interactions, due to lack of heavy elements in the usual target liquids, and sensitivity to contamination of the gel by alpha emitters. As an alternative, we have developed a new type of homogeneous bubble chamber, which can contain heavy liquids, including CF3Br, CF3I, and C3F8. Detectors of this type may be scalable to large size at modest cost and could have very low backgrounds. We discuss results obtained with a 12 ml prototype and plans for a 1 liter chamber.