Study of timing performance of Silicon Photomultiplier and application for a Cherenkov detector

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the timing performance of Silicon Photomultipliers in a Cherenkov detector prototype, demonstrating their effectiveness for precise timing in particle detection applications.

Contribution

It presents experimental results on the timing capabilities of MPPCs in a Cherenkov detector setup, including the impact of cooling and operating conditions.

Findings

High photon detection efficiency achieved

Effective timing resolution demonstrated with Cherenkov photons

Cooling reduces thermal noise and gain drifts

Abstract

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 $3\times 3$ mm$^2$ 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 DA$\Phi$NE 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.