  The PICASSO project is a cold dark matter (CDM) search experiment relying on
the superheated droplet technique. The detectors use superheated freon liquid
droplets (active material) dispersed and trapped in a polymerized gel. This
detection technique is based on the phase transition of superheated droplets at
room or moderate temperatures. The phase transitions are induced by nuclear
recoils when undergoing interactions with particles, including CDM candidates
such as the neutralinos predicted by supersymmetric models. The suitability of
the technique for this purpose has been demonstrated by R&D studies performed
over several years on detectors of various composition and volume. Simulations
performed to understand the detector response to neutrons and alpha particles
are presented along with corresponding data obtained at the Montreal
Laboratory.
