Vacuum silicon photomultipliers: Recent developments

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 718; pp. 582 - 583
• Main Authors: Barbarino, Giancarlo, Barbato, Felicia Carla Tiziana, Campajola, Luigi, de Asmundis, Riccardo, De Rosa, Gianfranca, Mollo, Carlos Maximiliano, Vivolo, Daniele
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-08-2013
• Subjects: Amplifiers; Detectors; Devices; Dynodes; Electric fields; Hybrid photodetector; MPPC; Photocathodes; Silicon; SiPM; Spectrometers; VSiPMT; VSiPMT; MPPC; SiPM; Hybrid photodetector
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2012.11.175

VSiPMT (Vacuum Silicon PhotoMultiplier Tube) is an innovative design for a modern hybrid, high gain, silicon based photodetector based on the combination of a SiPM with a hemispherical vacuum glass PMT standard envelope. In such a device photoelectrons emitted by the photocathode are accelerated and focused by an electric field towards a small focal area covered by the SiPM which therefore acts as an amplifier, thus substituting the classical dynode chain of a PMT.
With a view to the realization of a first prototype of VSiPMT our group is carrying out a preliminary work aimed at the study of SiPM performances as an electron detector, including an accurate Geant4-based simulation of the interaction between SiPM and electron beams. In order to perform a full characterization of the SiPM we developed an experimental setup for the extraction and the acceleration of a beam of backward secondary electrons emitted after the bombardment of a carbon foil by a proton beam extracted in a TTT-3 accelerator.