125 research outputs found
Detection of liquid xenon scintillation light with a Silicon Photomultiplier
We have studied the feasibility of a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) to detect
liquid xenon (LXe) scintillation light. The SiPM was operated inside a small
volume of pure LXe, at -95 degree Celsius, irradiated with an internal Am-241
alpha source. The gain of the SiPM at this temperature was estimated to be 1.8
x 10^6 with bias voltage at 52 V. Based on the geometry of the setup, the
quantum efficiency of the SiPM was estimated to be 22% at the Xe wavelength of
178 nm. The low excess noise factor, high single photoelectron detection
efficiency, and low bias voltage of SiPMs make them attractive alternative UV
photon detection devices to photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) for liquid xenon
detectors, especially for experiments requiring a very low energy detection
threshold, such as neutralino dark matter searches
Study of Scintillator Strip with Wavelength Shifting Fiber and Silicon Photomultiplier
The performance of the cm plastic scintillator
strip with wavelength shifting fiber read-out by two novel photodetectors
called Silicon PhotoMultipliers (SiPMs) is discussed. The advantages of SiPM
relative to the traditional multichannel photomultiplier are shown. Light yield
and light attenuation measurements are presented. This technique can be used in
muon or calorimeter systems.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Analytical models of probability distribution and excess noise factor of Solid State Photomultiplier signals with crosstalk
Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM), also so-called Solid State Photomultipliers
(SSPM), are based on Geiger mode avalanche breakdown limited by strong negative
feedback. SSPM can detect and resolve single photons due to high gain and
ultra-low excess noise of avalanche multiplication in this mode. Crosstalk and
afterpulsing processes associated with the high gain introduce specific excess
noise and deteriorate photon number resolution of the SSPM. Probabilistic
features of these processes are widely studied because of its high importance
for the SSPM design, characterization, optimization and application, but the
process modeling is mostly based on Monte Carlo simulations and numerical
methods. In this study, crosstalk is considered to be a branching Poisson
process, and analytical models of probability distribution and excess noise
factor (ENF) of SSPM signals based on the Borel distribution as an advance on
the geometric distribution models are presented and discussed. The models are
found to be in a good agreement with the experimental probability distributions
for dark counts and a few photon spectrums in a wide range of fired pixels
number as well as with observed super-linear behavior of crosstalk ENF.Comment: 10 pages, 2 tables, 3 figures, Reported at 6th International
Conference on "New Developments In Photodetection - NDIP11
Characterisation of radiation damage in silicon photomultipliers with a Monte Carlo model
Measured response functions and low photon yield spectra of silicon
photomultipliers (SiPM) were compared to multi-photoelectron pulse-height
distributions generated by a Monte Carlo model. Characteristic parameters for
SiPM were derived. The devices were irradiated with 14 MeV electrons at the
Mainz microtron MAMI. It is shown that the first noticeable damage consists of
an increase in the rate of dark pulses and the loss of uniformity in the pixel
gains. Higher radiation doses reduced also the photon detection efficiency. The
results are especially relevant for applications of SiPM in fibre detectors at
high luminosity experiments.Comment: submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth.
On the limited amplitude resolution of multipixel Geiger-mode APDs
The limited number of active pixels in a Geiger-mode Avalanche Photodiode
(G-APD) results not only in a non-linearity but also in an additional
fluctuation of its response. Both these effects are taken into account to
calculate the amplitude resolution of an ideal G-APD, which is shown to be
finite. As one of the consequences, the energy resolution of a scintillation
detector based on a G-APD is shown to be limited to some minimum value defined
by the number of pixels in the G-APD.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
A High-resolution Scintillating Fiber Tracker With Silicon Photomultiplier Array Readout
We present prototype modules for a tracking detector consisting of multiple
layers of 0.25 mm diameter scintillating fibers that are read out by linear
arrays of silicon photomultipliers. The module production process is described
and measurements of the key properties for both the fibers and the readout
devices are shown. Five modules have been subjected to a 12 GeV/c proton/pion
testbeam at CERN. A spatial resolution of 0.05 mm and light yields exceeding 20
detected photons per minimum ionizing particle have been achieved, at a
tracking efficiency of more than 98.5%. Possible techniques for further
improvement of the spatial resolution are discussed.Comment: 31 pages, 27 figures, pre-print version of an article published in
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A, Vol. 62
Detection of Cherenkov light from air showers with Geiger-APDs
We have detected Cherenkov light from air showers with Geiger-mode APDs
(G-APDs). G-APDs are novel semiconductor photon-detectors, which offer several
advantages compared to conventional photomultiplier tubes in the field of
ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. In a field test with the MAGIC telescope we
have tested the efficiency of a G-APD / light catcher setup to detect Cherenkov
light from air showers. We estimate a detection efficiency, which is 60% higher
than the efficiency of a MAGIC camera pixel. Ambient temperature dark count
rates of the tested G-APDs are below the rates of the night sky light
background. According to these recent tests G-APDs promise a major progress in
ground-based gamma-ray astronomy.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 30th
International Cosmic Ray Conference, Merida, July 200
Study of timing performance of Silicon Photomultiplier and application for a Cherenkov detector
Silicon photomultipliers are very versatile photo detectors due to their high
photon detection efficiency, fast response, single photon counting capability,
high amplification, and their insensitivity to magnetic fields. At our
institute we are studying the performance of these photo detectors at various
operating conditions. On the basis of the experience in the laboratory we built
a prototype of a timing Cherenkov detector consisting of a quartz radiator with
two mm MPPCs S10362-33-100C from Hamamatsu Photonics as
photodetectors. The MPPC sensors were operated with Peltier cooling to minimize
thermal noise and to avoid gain drifts. The test measurements at the DANE
Beam-Test Facility (BTF) at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) with
pulsed 490 MeV electrons and the results on timing performance with Cherenkov
photons are presented.Comment: Conference proceedings of 12th Vienna Conference on Instrumentation
201
Studies on multiplication effect of noises of PPDs, and a proposal of a new structure to improve the performance
Pixelated Photon Detectors (PPDs) are the most promising semiconductor
photodetectors in recent years. One of the issues with the PPD is its high
noise rate. As well as random noise, PPD also exhibits so called after-pulsing
and optical crosstalk, and these limit the applicable range of its gain as well
as its size. By accurately measuring each of these causes of noises
independently, we quantitatively evaluated how the performance of the present
device is limited by multiplication effect of these noises. With this result
and the pulsing mechanism of PPD, we propose a new structure of PPD which could
have high gain with low noise.Comment: Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research,
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