An innovative technique for the investigation of the 4-fold forbidden beta-decay of 50V
Abstract.For the first time a Vanadium-based crystal was operated as cryogenic particle detector. The scintillating low temperature calorimetric technique was used for the characterization of a 22g YVO4 crystal aiming at the investigation of the 4-fold forbidden non-unique $\beta^{-}$β- decay of 50V. The excellent bolometric performance of the compound together with high light output of the crystal make it an outstanding technique for the study of such elusive rate process. The internal radioactive contaminations of the crystal are also investigated showing that an improvement on the current status of material selection and purification are needed, 235/238U and 232Th are measured at the level of 28mBq/kg, 1.3 Bq/kg and 28m Bq/kg, respectively. In this work, we also discuss a future upgrade of the experimental set-up which may pave the road for the detection of the rare 50V $\beta^{-}$β- decay.