Improving the light collection efficiency of silicon photomultipliers through the use of metalenses

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that integrating metalenses with silicon photomultipliers significantly enhances light collection efficiency, achieving a six to seven-fold increase, which benefits particle detectors in rare-event physics.

Contribution

The study introduces the use of nanostructured metalenses to improve SiPM light collection efficiency, showing a practical implementation with substantial performance gains.

Findings

Six to seven-fold increase in signal with metalenses

Effective coupling of metalenses with various SiPM sizes

Potential for improved particle detector sensitivity

Abstract

Metalenses are optical devices that implement nanostructures as phase shifters to focus incident light. Their compactness and simple fabrication make them a potential cost-effective solution for increasing light collection efficiency in particle detectors with limited photosensitive area coverage. Here we report on the characterization and performance of metalenses in increasing the light collection efficiency of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) of various sizes using an LED of 630~nm, and find a six to seven-fold increase in signal for a $1.3\times1.3~\mathrm{mm}^2$ SiPM when coupled with a 10-mm-diameter metalens manufactured using deep ultraviolet stepper lithography. Such improvements could be valuable for future generations of particle detectors, particularly those employed in rare-event searches such as dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay.