Search for double $$\beta $$-decay modes of $$^{64}$$Zn using purified zinc

The production of ultra-pure raw material is a crucial step to ensure the required background level in rare event searches. In this work, we establish an innovative technique developed to produce high-purity (99.999%) granular zinc. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the refining procedure by measuring the internal contaminations of the purified zinc with a high-purity germanium detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. The total activity of cosmogenic activated nuclides is measured at the level of a few mBq/kg, as well as limits on naturally occurring radionuclides are set to less than mBq/kg. The excellent radiopurity of the zinc sample allows us to search for electron capture with positron emission and neutrinoless double electron capture of $$^{64}$$ Zn, setting the currently most stringent lower limits on their half-lives, $$T_{1/2}^{\varepsilon \beta ^+} > 2.7\times 10^{21}~\text {year}$$ (90% CI), and $$T_{1/2}^{0\nu 2\varepsilon }> 2.6\times 10^{21}~\text {year}$$ (90% CI), respectively.