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This report presents an overview of the unconventional use of charge-coupled devices (CCDs) to search for Dark Matter (DM). The DArk Matter In CCDs (DAMIC Experiment) employs the bulk silicon of thick, fully-depleted CCDs as a target for ionization signals produced by interactions of particle dark matter from the galactic halo. The DAMIC collaboration has engaged in an extensive campaign of characterization efforts to understand the response of these CCDs to low-energy nuclear recoils and their unique capabilities, including the use of high spatial resolution for both the rejection and study of backgrounds. The preliminary results of DAMIC prove the performance of the detector, provide measurements of the background contamination and demonstrate the potentiality for DM searches, with only ~40 grams of detector mass. The next phase of the experiment, DAMIC-M (DArk Matter in CCDs at Modane), will consist of a kg-sized detector, implementing the most massive CCDs ever built. These CCDs will feature sub-electron noise and will be deployed in a low-radioactivity environment at the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane in France.

We report on a search for sub-GeV dark matter (DM) particles interacting with electrons using the DAMIC-M prototype detector at the Modane Underground Laboratory. The data feature a significantly lower detector single \\(e^-\\) rate (factor 50) compared to our previous search, while also accumulating a ten times larger exposure of \\(\\sim\\)1.3 kg-day. DM interactions in the skipper charge-coupled devices (CCDs) are searched for as patterns of two or three consecutive pixels with a total charge between 2 and 4 \\(e^-\\). We find 144 candidates of 2 \\(e^-\\) and 1 candidate of 4 \\(e^-\\), where 141.5 and 0.071, respectively, are expected from background. With no evidence of a DM signal, we place stringent constraints on DM particles with masses between 1 and 1000 MeV/\\(c^2\\) interacting with electrons through an ultra-light or heavy mediator. For large ranges of DM masses below 1 GeV/c\\(^2\\), we exclude theoretically-motivated benchmark scenarios where hidden-sector particles are produced as a major component of DM in the Universe through the freeze-in or freeze-out mechanisms.

The flux of Hidden Sector particles from the Galactic halo reaching an underground detector can be significantly attenuated by interactions within the Earth for sufficiently large scattering crosssections. This attenuation gives rise to a characteristic daily modulation in the detection rate, due to Earth's rotation. We present results from a search for such a modulation using a 1.257 kg-day dataset collected with the DAMIC-M Low Background Chamber. A model-independent analysis reveals no significant modulation in the 1e- event rate over periods from 1 to 48 h, highlighting the excellent temporal stability of the detector. In a complementary model-dependent analysis, we target the expected daily modulation signature of Hidden Sector particles, with masses in the range [0.53,2] MeV/c2, interacting with electrons via a dark photon mediator. By leveraging the expected temporal evolution of the signal, we set improved constraints on Dark Matter masses below 1.2 MeV/c2, surpassing our previous limits.

The DAMIC-M (DArk Matter In CCDs at Modane) experiment employs thick, fully depleted silicon charged-coupled devices (CCDs) to search for dark matter particles with a target exposure of 1 kg-year. A novel skipper readout implemented in the CCDs provides single electron resolution through multiple non-destructive measurements of the individual pixel charge, pushing the detection threshold to the eV-scale. DAMIC-M will advance by several orders of magnitude the exploration of the dark matter particle hypothesis, in particular of candidates pertaining to the so-called \"hidden sector.\" A prototype, the Low Background Chamber (LBC), with 20g of low background Skipper CCDs, has been recently installed at Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane and is currently taking data. We will report the status of the DAMIC-M experiment and first results obtained with LBC commissioning data.