Characterization of Silicon Photomultiplier Photon Detection Efficiency at Liquid Nitrogen Temperature

TL;DR

This study measures the photon detection efficiency of silicon photomultipliers at 77 K, revealing a significant decrease in efficiency compared to room temperature, which is crucial for cryogenic physics experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed characterization of SiPM PDE at liquid nitrogen temperature for specific models used in physics experiments.

Findings

PDE decreases by over 20% at 77 K for 562 nm light.

Results inform optimization of SiPMs for cryogenic applications.

Data supports improved detector design for beyond Standard Model searches.

Abstract

The detection of individual photons at cryogenic temperatures is of interest to many experiments searching for physics beyond the Standard Model. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are often deployed in liquid argon or liquid xenon to detect scintillation light either directly or after it has been wavelength-shifted. Maximizing the photon detection efficiency (PDE) of the SiPMs used in these experiments optimizes the sensitivity to new physics; however, the PDEs of commercial SiPMs, although well known at room temperature, are not well characterized at the cryogenic temperatures at which many experiments operate them. Here we present results from an experimental setup that measures the photon detection efficiencies of silicon photomultipliers at liquid nitrogen temperature, 77 K. Results from a KETEK PM3325-WB-D0 and a Hamamatsu S13360-3050CS silicon photomultiplier - of R&D interest to the LEGEND experiment - exhibit a decrease in photon detection efficiency greater than 20% at liquid nitrogen temperature relative to room temperature for 562 nm light.