The Neutrino Ettore Majorana Observatory (NEMO experiment) is an international collaboration of scientists searching for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ).
NEMO takes a different approach, using thin foils of source material surrounded by a separate tracking calorimeter.
A tracking detector on each side of the foil detects electrons and positrons from the double beta decay.
For standard double beta decay the neutrinos, which cannot be observed directly, reduce the detected energy.
Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) has not been observed in 5 years of data taking and limits have been set for several isotopes.
This can be translated into an upper limit on the effective neutrino mass: mv < 0.3–0.9 eV, depending on the nuclear model.
[10] The SuperNEMO detector will consist of 20 modules each containing approximately 5 kg of enriched double beta decay emitting isotope in the form of a thin foil.