Characterisation of Silicon Photomultipliers for Liquid Xenon Detectors

Understand

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$6$\,$mm$^2$ SiPMs in the temperature range 110-300$\,$K in nitrogen gas, as well as long-term measurements in cold nitrogen gas at 172$\,$K and liquid xenon at 185$\,$K.