Tests of a dual-readout fiber calorimeter with SiPM light sensors

TL;DR

This paper reports the first experimental tests of a dual-readout fiber calorimeter using silicon photomultipliers, demonstrating improved Cherenkov light yield and detailed shower profiling, addressing optical crosstalk challenges.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dual-readout fiber calorimeter with SiPM sensors and evaluates its performance with high-energy particle beams and lab tests.

Findings

Cherenkov light yield was about twice that of previous PMT-based configurations.

Significant differences in electromagnetic shower profiles were observed between scintillating and Cherenkov fibers.

Optical crosstalk was effectively minimized in the detector design.

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the first tests of a dual-readout fiber calorimeter in which silicon photomultipliers are used to sense the (scintillation and Cherenkov) light signals. The main challenge in this detector is implementing a design that minimizes the optical crosstalk between the two types of fibers, which are located very close to each other and carry light signals that differ in intensity by about a factor of 60. The experimental data, which were obtained with beams of high-energy electrons and muons as well as in lab tests, illustrate to what extent this challenge was met. The Cherenkov light yield, a limiting factor for the energy resolution of this type of calorimeter, was measured to be about twice that of the previously tested configurations based on photomultiplier tubes. The lateral profiles of electromagnetic showers were measured on a scale of millimeters from the shower axis and significant differences were found between the profiles measured with the scintillating and the Cherenkov fibers.