This paper describes an experimental setup that has been developed to measure and characterise properties of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM). The measured SiPM properties are of general interest for a multitude of potential applications and comprise the Photon Detection Efficiency (PDE), the voltage dependent cross-talk and the after-pulse probabilities. With the described setup the absolute PDE can be determined as a function of wavelength covering a spectral range from 350 to 1000nm. In addition, a method is presented which allows to study the pixel uniformity in terms of the spatial variations of sensitivity and gain. The results from various commercially available SiPMs - three HAMAMATSU MPPCs and one SensL SPM - are presented and compared.
A detailed and accurate characterisation of silicon photomultiplier detectors is required for a better understanding of the signal and noise in many applications. The collected information is a valuable feedback to the manufacturers in their attempt to improve the performances. In this paper, we provide a detailed description of how to characterise these photo-detectors. The correlated noise probabilities, the important time constants and the photon detection efficiency are obtained with a statistical analysis of pulse-shape and time distributions. The method is tested with different detectors…
In this paper I want to review the current status of development of multi-pixel silicon-based avalanche photo-diodes operated in Geiger mode, also known as Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM). Particular emphasis is given to the application of this type of photo-sensors in high energy physics detectors.
Signal-induced noise is observed in Hamamatsu R11265 Multianode Photomultiplier Tubes, manifesting up to several microseconds after the single photoelectron response signal and localised in specific anodes. The mean number of noise pulses varies between devices, and shows significant dependence on the applied high-voltage. The characterisation of this noise and the mitigation strategies to perform optimal single-photon counting at 40 MHz, as required by the LHCb Ring-Imaging Cherenkov detectors, are reported.
The performance of several trigger counters based on plastic scintillators with silicon photomultiplier readout is investigated with cosmic rays. Efficiency and time resolution are measured using digital waveform analysis. The obtained results are relevant for trigger subsystems of Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) and Baryonic Matter at the Nuclotron (BM@N) at the NICA heavy-ion collider. The results show very high efficiency and good timing performance of the counters.
The results obtained in laboratory tests, using scintillator bars read by silicon photomultipliers are reported. The present approach is the first step for designing a precision tracking system to be placed inside a free magnetized volume for the charge identification of low energy crossing particles. The devised system is demonstrated able to provide a spatial resolution better than 2 mm.
Scintillation characteristics of a thallium doped sodium iodide (NaI(Tl)) crystal with a dimension of 0.6 x 0.6 x 2 cm3 are studied by attaching a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) direct to the crystal over a temperature range from 93 to 300 K. The scintillation light output and decay time are measured by irradiating 59.54 keV gamma-rays from a 241Am source. We observed approximately 20% increase in light yield at 230K compared to that at the room temperature. At this condition, the NaI(Tl) crystal coupled with the SiPM can be a good candidate for future dark matter search detector.
The Muon Telescope is a muography experiment for imaging volcanoes in Colombia. It consists of a scintillator tracking system and a water Cherenkov detector used for particle deposited energy measurement. The MuTe operates autonomously in high altitude environments where the temperature gradient reaches up to $10$$^{\circ}$C. In this work, we characterize the breakdown voltage, gain, and noise of the telescope silicon photomultipliers for temperature variations spanning $0$ to $40$$^{\circ}$C. We demonstrated that the discrimination threshold for the MuTe hodoscope must be above 5 pe to avoid …
We have investigated the effects of X-ray irradiation to doses of 0, 200 Gy, 20 kGy, 2 MGy, and 20 MGy on the Hamamatsu silicon-photomultiplier (SiPM) S10362-11-050C. The SiPMs were irradiated without applied bias voltage. From current-voltage, capacitance/conductance-voltage, -frequency, pulse-shape, and pulse-area measurements, the SiPM characteristics below and above breakdown voltage were determined. Significant changes of some SiPM parameters are observed. Up to a dose of 20 kGy the performance of the SiPMs is hardly affected by X-ray radiation damage. For doses of 2 and 20 MGy the SiPMs …
Silicon photomultiplier arrays - a novel photon detector for a high resolution tracker produced at FBK-irst, Italy
在FBK-irst研制了一个硅光电倍增器（SiPM）阵列，它有32个通道，尺寸为8.0 x 1.1 mm^2。每个250 um宽的通道被细分为5 x 22个矩形排列的像素。这些传感器被开发用于读出模块化高分辨率的光纤跟踪器。关键属性，如击穿电压，增益和光子探测效率（PDE）被发现是均匀的SiPM阵列的所有32个通道。如果噪声特性和PDE得到改善，这可以使具有SiPM阵列读出的光纤跟踪器成为可用跟踪器技术的有希望的替代方案。
We present light yield and uniformity measurements of square and hexagonal tiles read out with silicon photomultipliers via a Y11 wavelength-shifting fiber or directly from the side or from the center at the top face. All tiles are 3~mm thick and have an area of $\rm 9~cm^2$. The sides are wrapped with two layers of Teflon tape while top and bottom faces are covered with two layers of Tyvec paper. We further show the first light yield and uniformity measurements of ATLAS Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) tiles with MPPC readout. This study has been motivated by looking into a possible phase 3 upgrade…
Characterisation of silicon photomultipliers in a dilution refrigerator down to 9.4 mK towards a cryogenic cosmic-ray muon veto system
UKRI STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory（英国研究与创新署STFC卢瑟福阿普尔顿实验室）；Lancaster University（兰卡斯特大学）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；Royal Holloway University of London（伦敦大学皇家霍洛威学院）；RIKEN（理化学研究所）；University of Liverpool（利物浦大学）
Xenon-doped liquid argon has been proposed as a good alternative to pure liquid argon in scintillation detectors. In this study, we report on the measurement of the time profile of scintillation light emitted from xenon-doped liquid argon with molar concentrations up to 1600 ppm. A compact setup has been developed for this study, with silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) as the photosensor and $^{210}\mathrm{Po}$ and $^{90}\mathrm{Sr}$ as scintillation sources. An effective model based on the de-excitation processes has been developed to describe the data. The results show that xenon-doped liquid ar…
The light yield and the time resolution of different types of 3 m long scintillating bars instrumented with wavelength shifting fibres and read out by different models of silicon photomultipliers have been measured at a test beam at the T9 area at the CERN Proton Synchrotron. The results obtained with different configurations are presented. A time resolution better than 800 ps, constant along the bar length within 20%, and a light yield of ~ 140 (70) photoelectrons are obtained for bars 3 m long, 4.5 (5) cm wide and 2 (0.7) cm thick. These results nicely match the requirements for the Muon Det…
Next generation multi-ton scale noble liquid experiments have the unique opportunity to discover dark matter particles at the TeV scale, reaching the sensitivity of 10^-48 cm2 in the WIMP nucleon scattering cross-section. A prerequisite will be the reduction of radiogenic background sources to negligible levels. This is only possible if ultra pure high efficiency photosensors are available for the scintillation light readout. Current experiments (e.g. Xenon, LUX, Darkside, ArDM) use cryogenic PMTs as photosensors. An attractive alternative is represented by silicon photomultiplier arrays (SiPM…
We are developing a novel high-brightness atomic beam, comprised of a two-body exotic atom called muonium (M $ = μ^+ + e^-$), for next-generation atomic physics and gravitational interaction measurements. This M source originates from a thin sheet of superfluid helium (SFHe), hence diagnostics and later measurements require a detection system which is operational in a dilution cryostat at temperatures below 1 K. In this paper, we describe the operation and characterization of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) at ultra-low temperatures in SFHe targets. We show the temperature dependence of the s…
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 …
Photoelectron yields of extruded scintillation counters with titanium dioxide coating and embedded wavelength shifting fibers read out by silicon photomultipliers have been measured at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility using 120\,GeV protons. The yields were measured as a function of transverse, longitudinal, and angular positions for a variety of scintillator compositions and reflective coating mixtures, fiber diameters, and photosensor sizes. Timing performance was also studied. These studies were carried out by the Cosmic Ray Veto Group of the Mu2e collaboration as part of their R\&D program.
Decreasing the operation temperature of a Silicon Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) leads to a drop in its dark noise. Some experiments consider cold temperatures as an option for low noise applications of SiPM. One of those is the TAO detector, which requires operation at $T\approx -50~^\circ$C. A significant dependence of the Photon Detection Efficiency (PDE) of a SiPM on different temperatures was reported with a drastic drop around this temperature. In this paper, we present studies of performance for two samples of SiPMs from Hamamatsu and AdvanSID(FBK) companies in a broad temperature range. No si…
Reflectance of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) is an important aspect to understand the large scale SiPM-based detector systems and evaluate the performance of SiPMs. We report the reflactance of two SiPMs, NUV-HD-lowCT and S14160-60-50HS manufactured by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) respectively, in linear alkylbenzene (LAB) and in air at visible wavelengths. Our results show that the reflectance of the FBK SiPM in air varies in the range of 14% to 23% , depending on wavelengths and angle of incidence, which is 2 time larger than that of the HPK device. Th…
We are developing a rugged and person-transportable Compton gamma imager for use in security investigations of radioactive materials, and for radiological incident remediation. The imager is composed of layers of scintillator with light collection for the forward layers provided by silicon photomultipliers and for the rear layer by photomultiplier tubes. As a first step, we have developed a 1/5th-scale demonstration unit of the final imager. We present the imaging performance of this demonstration unit for Cs-137 at angles of up to 30 degrees off-axis. Results are also presented for Sn-113 and…
In the Kaos spectrometer at the Mainz Microtron a high-resolution coordinate detector for high-energy particles is operated. It consists of scintillating fibres with diameters of < 1mm and is read out by > 4000 multi-anode photomultiplier channels. It is one of the most modern focal-plane detectors for magnetic spectrometers world-wide. To correct variations in the detection efficiency, caused by the different gains and the different optical transmittances, a fully automated off-line calibration procedure has been developed. The process includes the positioning of a radioisotope source alongsi…
We present a detailed characterisation of the new Hamamatsu R12199-01 HA MOD 3-inch photomultiplier tube (PMT) which is under consideration for the use in segmented optical modules of deep-ice neutrino detectors at the South Pole. Because of the significantly lower operation-temperature range compared to standard applications, a focus of our studies lies on the investigation of the temperature dependence of background characteristics (dark count rate, probability of correlated pulses), timing properties, gain and peak-to-valley ratio of this PMT type. In addition, the performance of the `HA co…
This paper proposes an automatic procedure, based on ROOT data Analysis Framework, for the analysis of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) characteristics. In particular, it can be used to analyze experimental waveforms, from oscilloscope, containing SiPM pulses acquired at different temperatures and bias voltages. Important SiPMs characteristics such as: charge distribution, gain, breakdown voltage, pulse shape (rise time and recovery time) and overvoltage can been calculated. Developed procedure can be easily used to analyze any type of SiPM detectors.
The after-pulsing probability in Silicon Photomulti- pliers and its time constant are obtained measuring the mean number of photo-electrons in a variable time window following a light pulse. The method, experimentally simple and statistically robust due to the use of the Central Limit Theorem, has been applied to an HAMAMATSU MPPC S10362-11-100C.
An experimental method to characterize the crosstalk and afterpulsing in silicon photomultipliers has been developed and applied to two detectors fabricated by Hamamatsu. An analytical model of optical crosstalk that we presented in a previous publication has been compared with new measurements, confirming our results. Progresses on a statistical model to describe afterpulsing and delayed crosstalk are also shown and compared with preliminary experimental data.
For the first time, a small dual-phase (liquid/gas) xenon time projection chamber was equipped with a top array of silicon photomultipliers for light and charge readout. Here we describe the instrument in detail, as well as the data processing and the event position reconstruction algorithms. We obtain a spatial resolution of ~1.5 mm in the horizontal plane. To characterise the detector performance, we show calibration data with internal $^{83\text{m}}$Kr and $^{37}$Ar sources, and we detail the production of the latter as well as its introduction into the system. We finally compare the observ…
A statistical model of the nonlinear response of silicon photomultipliers is presented. It includes losses of both the photodetection efficiency and the gain during pixel recovery periods as well as the effect of correlated and uncorrelated noise. The model provides either the mean output charge of a SiPM for incident light pulses of arbitrary shape or the output current for continuous light. The dependence of the SiPM response on both the overvoltage and the pulse shape is also properly described. The model has been validated for two different silicon photomultipliers using scintillation ligh…
The performance of scintillator counters with embedded wavelength-shifting fibers has been measured in the Fermilab Meson Test Beam Facility using 120 GeV protons. The counters were extruded with a titanium dioxide surface coating and two channels for fibers at the Fermilab NICADD facility. Each fiber end is read out by a 2*2 mm^2 silicon photomultiplier. The signals were amplified and digitized by a custom-made front-end electronics board. Combinations of 5*2 cm^2 and 6*2 cm^2 extrusion profiles with 1.4 and 1.8 mm diameter fibers were tested. The design is intended for the cosmic-ray veto de…
Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are considered as a solid-state sensor alternative to photomultiplier tubes in experiments using liquid xenon (LXe) as a radiation detection medium. The main requirements are single-photon detection of the vacuum ultraviolet scintillation light from LXe at 178$\,$nm with high resolution and detection efficiency and low noise rates. Further requirements for dark matter and double beta decay searches are ultra-low radioactivity levels of all the components including the substrates and cold electronics. Here we describe our characterisation of Hamamatsu 6$\times$6…
Following first large-scale applications in highly granular calorimeters and in neutrino detectors, Silicon Photomultipliers have seen a wide adoption in accelerator-based particle and nuclear physics experiments. Today, they are used for a wide range of different particle detector types, ranging from calorimeters and trackers to particle identification and veto detectors, large volume detectors for neutrino physics and timing systems. This article reviews the current state and expected evolution of these applications, highlighting strengths and limitation of SiPMs and the corresponding design…
Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are potential solid-state alternatives to traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) for single-photon detection. In this paper, we report on evaluating SensL MicroFC-10035-SMT SiPMs for their suitability as PMT replacements. The devices were successfully operated in a liquid-xenon detector, which demonstrates that SiPMs can be used in noble element time projection chambers as photosensors. The devices were also cooled down to 170 K to observe dark count dependence on temperature. No dependencies on the direction of an applied 3.2 kV/cm electric field were observ…
Measurements are presented of the reduction of signal output due to radiation damage for plastic scintillator tiles used in the hadron endcap (HE) calorimeter of the CMS detector. The tiles were exposed to particles produced in proton-proton (pp) collisions at the CERN LHC with a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to a delivered luminosity of 50 fb$^{-1}$. The measurements are based on readout channels of the HE that were instrumented with silicon photomultipliers, and are derived using data from several sources: a laser calibration system, a movable radioactive source, as well as …
Novel generation of silicon-based photodetectors are attractive alternatives to the traditional phototubes. They offer significant advantages but they present new challenges too. Presence of afterpulses may affect many characteristics of the photodetectors. Simple statistical model of afterpulsing is used to evaluate the contribution to the observed dark count rates, to examine the contribution to the pulse height resolution and to demonstrate the modification of the observed timing properties of the SiPMs.
Dark count rate and correlated noise rate are among the main parameters that characterize silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). Typically, these parameters are evaluated by applying approximate formulas, or by fitting specific models, to the measured SiPM noise spectra. Here a novel approach is presented, where exact formulas are derived from a statistical model of dark counts and correlated noise generation. The method allows one to measure the true value of such parameters from the areas of just the first peaks in the dark spectrum. A numerical analysis shows the accuracy of the method.
We compared the performance of a SiPM array and a PMT in a laboratory setting using a single 5.08x5.08-cm cylindrical sodium iodide scintillating crystal. Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are the most commonly used device to monitor scintillating materials for radiation detection purposes. The systems are sometimes limited by disadvantages in the PMTs that may degrade their performance, including temperature dependence and variation with magnetic field. Instrumentation engineering must also contend with a potentially large volume relative to the active scintillator volume, fragility, and high volt…
Performance characterisation of the Hamamatsu R760 photomultiplier tube for the PLUME detector
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)（欧洲核子研究中心）；Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie, IJCLab（伊雷娜·约里奥-居里双无穷物理实验室）；Institute of Physics, Ècole Polytechnique Fèdèrale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院物理研究所）
The event plane detector (EPD), installed in the Solenoid Tracker at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider located at the Brookhaven National Laboratory is a plastic scintillator-based device that measures the reaction centrality and event plane in the forward region of the relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We used silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays to detect the photons produced in the scintillator via the fiber connection. Signals from the SiPM arrays were amplified by the front-end electronic (FEE) board, and sent to the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) boards for further processing via …
In this work we study the performance of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) light sensors after exposure to the JULIC cyclotron proton beam, of energy $\sim$ 39 MeV, relative to their performance before exposure. The SiPM devices used in this study show a significant change in their behavior and downward shift of their breakdown voltage by as much as $\sim$ 0.4$\pm$0.1 V. Single photon measurements appear to be no longer possible for the SiPMs under study after exposure to a dose of $\sim$ 0.2 Gy (corresponding to an integrated proton flux of $\sim$$ϕ_{p}$=1.06x10$^{8}$ p/cm$^{2}$). No visible dam…
In this article we describe the photon detection readout electronics for the nEDM@SNS experiment. The chosen "photon counting" architecture, which utilizes high-efficiency silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and is appropriate for low-light applications, allows the use of a relatively high SiPM operating voltage. This maximizes photon detection efficiency and minimizes gain/efficiency voltage-dependence while eliminating optical cross-talk.
We present a generic framework for the simulation of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) which enables detailed modelling of the SiPM response using basic SiPM parameters and geometry as an input. Depending on the specified SiPM properties which can be determined from basic characterisation measurements, the simulation generates the signal charge and pulse shape for arbitrary incident light pulse distributions. The simulation has been validated in the whole dynamic range for a Hamamatsu S10362-11-100C MPPC and was used to study the effect of different noise sources like optical cross-talk and aft…
We present a description of the operation of a multi-pixel detector in the presence of non-negligible dark-count and cross-talk effects. We apply the model to devise self-consistent calibration strategies to be performed on the very light under investigation.
The Atomic Spectroscopy and Collisions Using Slow Antiprotons (ASACUSA) experiment at the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) facility of CERN constructed segmented scintillators to detect and track the charged pions which emerge from antiproton annihilations in a future superconducting radiofrequency Paul trap for antiprotons. A system of 541 cast and extruded scintillator bars were arranged in 11 detector modules which provided a spatial resolution of 17 mm. Green wavelength-shifting fibers were embedded in the scintillators, and read out by silicon photomultipliers which had a sensitive area of 1 x…
The avalanche breakdown and Geiger mode of the silicon p-n junction is considered. A precise physically motivated method is proposed for determining the avalanche breakdown voltage of silicon photomultipliers (Si PM). The method is based on measuring the dependence of the relative photon detection efficiency (PDErel ) on the bias voltage when one type of carriers (electron or hole) is injected into the avalanche multiplication zone of the p-n junction. The injection of electrons or holes from the base region of the Si PM semiconductor structure is performed using short-wave or long-wave light.…
We report about the optical and electrical characterization of three high efficiency and blue sensitive Silicon photomultipliers from FBK, Hamamatsu, and SensL. Key features of the tested devices when operated at 90% breakdown probability are peak photon detection efficiencies between 40% and 55%, temperature dependencies of gain and PDE that are less than 1%/$^{\circ}$C, dark rates of $\sim$50\,kHz/mm$^{2}$ at room temperature, afterpulsing of about 2%, and direct optical crosstalk between 6% and 20%. The characteristics of all three devices impressively demonstrate how the Silicon-photomulti…
A Silicon Photomultiplier, SiPM, is a metasystem of Avalanche Photodiodes, APDs, which embedded in a specific purpose electronic, becomes a metadevice with unique and useful advanced functionalities to capture, transmit and analyze information with increased efficiency and security. The SiPM is a very small state of the art photo-detector with very high efficiency and sensitivity, with good response to controlled light pulses in the presence of background light without saturation. New results profit of such metadevice to propose a new receiver-emitter system useful for Visible Light Communicat…
We report on the possibility of using Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) to detect the scintillation light from neutron conversion in ZnS:6LiF scintillators. The light is collected by wavelength-shifting fibers embedded into the scintillator. The difficulty of extracting neutron signals in the presence of high dark count rates of the SiPMs is addressed by applying a dedicated processing algorithm to analyze the temporal distribution of the SiPM pulses. With a single-channel prototype detection unit we demonstrate a very good neutron signal extraction at SiPM dark count rates of about 1 MHz.
