Single photon time resolution of photodetectors at high rate: Hamamatsu R13742 MaPMT and R10754 MCP-PMT

TL;DR

This study compares the high-rate single photon time resolution of Hamamatsu R13742 MaPMT and R10754 MCP-PMT, highlighting their performance limits and resolution characteristics under different illumination conditions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of these two photodetectors' time resolution at high photon rates, including saturation points and spatial effects.

Findings

MCP-PMT achieves ~70 ps FWHM time resolution at low rates but saturates above 100 kHz/mm^2.

MaPMT handles up to 10 MHz/mm^2 with ~250 ps resolution at pixel center.

Pixel edge effects degrade MaPMT resolution to ~400 ps when entire pixel is illuminated.

Abstract

This paper reports on the time resolution of two photodetectors operated as single photon counters at high rate: a Hamamatsu R13742-103-M64 "conventional" (based on metal dynodes) multi-anode photomultiplier tube (MaPMT) and a Hamamatsu R10754-07-M16 microchannel plate photomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT). The MCP-PMT shows a time resolution (transit time spread, or jitter) of ~70 ps FWHM (~30 ps RMS) at low photon rates, but saturates above ~100 kHz/mm^2. The MaPMT can handle photon counting rates up to the highest tested, 10 MHz/mm^2. Its time resolution is ~250 ps FWHM (~110 ps RMS) when only the pixel center is illuminated, but pixel edge effects degrade the resolution to ~400 ps FWHM (~170 ps RMS) when the entire pixel area is illuminated.