Characterization of a high efficiency silicon photomultiplier for millisecond to sub-microsecond astrophysical transient searches

TL;DR

This paper characterizes a high-efficiency silicon photomultiplier suitable for millisecond to sub-microsecond astrophysical transient searches, highlighting its performance metrics and potential for use in ultra-fast optical sky observations.

Contribution

It provides detailed measurements and analysis of the S14160-3050HS MPPC's performance, demonstrating its suitability for ultra-fast astrophysical transient detection.

Findings

Dark count rate of 1.08 MHz at 3 V over voltage

Photon detection efficiency of 55% at 450 nm

Saturation at 1.0x10^11 photons per second

Abstract

We characterized the S14160-3050HS Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC), a high efficiency, single channel silicon photomultiplier manufactured by Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. All measurements were performed at a room temperature of (23.0 $\pm$ 0.3) $^{\circ}$C. We obtained an I-V curve and used relative derivatives to find a breakdown voltage of 38.88 V. At a 3 V over voltage, we find a dark count rate of 1.08 MHz, crosstalk probability of 21 $\%$, photon detection efficiency of 55 $\%$ at 450 nm, and saturation at 1.0x10$^{11}$ photons per second. The S14160-3050HS MPPC is a candidate detector for the Ultra-Fast Astronomy (UFA) telescope which will characterize the optical (320 nm - 650 nm) sky in the millisecond to sub-microsecond timescales using two photon counting arrays operated in coincidence on the 0.7 meter Nazarbayev University Transient Telescope at the Assy-Turgen Astrophysical Observatory (NUTTelA-TAO) located near Almaty, Kazakhstan. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of using the S14160-3050HS MPPC for the UFA telescope and future ground-based telescopes in sub-second time domain astrophysics.