TY - GEN
T1 - Comprehensive Characterization of Silicon Photomultipliers for Nuclear Security Applications
AU - Wonders, Marc A.
AU - Chichester, David L.
AU - Flaska, Marek
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript submitted November 10, 2017. This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Office of International Nuclear Safeguards, from the Human Capital Development Subprogram.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2018/11/12
Y1 - 2018/11/12
N2 - Scintillation detectors are an essential instrument in a variety of fields, serving as an effective means of detecting radiation for industrial, defense, medical, and basic-research applications. Light sensors are an integral part of all scintillation detectors and can affect detector performance as much as the scintillator itself. The photomultiplier tube (PMT) has been the standard light sensor for over half a century, but alternatives have been developed recently, and the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is perhaps the most promising of these new technologies. SiPMs can produce gains of the same order of magnitude as most PMTs and have shown reduced noise levels in the newest generations. Additionally, they posses benefits characteristic of solid-state devices such as insensitivity to magnetic fields, mechanical ruggedness, compactness, low operating voltages, and high quantum efficiencies. The timing properties of light sensors are an important characteristic for many applications, including nuclear security. For example, accurate timing is necessary for time of flight experiments, scatter cameras, and background suppression. This work aims to characterize the time resolution of many commercially available new-generation SiPMs, specifically in a time-coincidence setting. SiPMs have been acquired from five leading manufacturers possessing a variety of pixel and microcell sizes. Results are presented with an organic scintillator p-terphenyl and coincidence time resolution of less than 300 picoseconds is achieved. Comparison with PMTs shows that the PMT pair tested has a superior time resolution of 83 picoseconds.
AB - Scintillation detectors are an essential instrument in a variety of fields, serving as an effective means of detecting radiation for industrial, defense, medical, and basic-research applications. Light sensors are an integral part of all scintillation detectors and can affect detector performance as much as the scintillator itself. The photomultiplier tube (PMT) has been the standard light sensor for over half a century, but alternatives have been developed recently, and the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is perhaps the most promising of these new technologies. SiPMs can produce gains of the same order of magnitude as most PMTs and have shown reduced noise levels in the newest generations. Additionally, they posses benefits characteristic of solid-state devices such as insensitivity to magnetic fields, mechanical ruggedness, compactness, low operating voltages, and high quantum efficiencies. The timing properties of light sensors are an important characteristic for many applications, including nuclear security. For example, accurate timing is necessary for time of flight experiments, scatter cameras, and background suppression. This work aims to characterize the time resolution of many commercially available new-generation SiPMs, specifically in a time-coincidence setting. SiPMs have been acquired from five leading manufacturers possessing a variety of pixel and microcell sizes. Results are presented with an organic scintillator p-terphenyl and coincidence time resolution of less than 300 picoseconds is achieved. Comparison with PMTs shows that the PMT pair tested has a superior time resolution of 83 picoseconds.
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U2 - 10.1109/NSSMIC.2017.8532724
DO - 10.1109/NSSMIC.2017.8532724
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85058441783
T3 - 2017 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2017 - Conference Proceedings
BT - 2017 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2017 - Conference Proceedings
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2017 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2017
Y2 - 21 October 2017 through 28 October 2017
ER -