Series Testing and Characterization of 1100 Hamamatsu H12700 Multianode Photomultiplier Tubes

TL;DR

This paper details a comprehensive testing and characterization process for 1100 Hamamatsu H12700 MAPMTs, including measurements of gain, dark rate, efficiency, and aging effects, to ensure their suitability for use in RICH detectors.

Contribution

It introduces a new test bench setup and provides extensive data on the performance and aging of H12700 MAPMTs before deployment in particle detectors.

Findings

Distribution of gain, dark rate, efficiency, and afterpulse probability across 1,100 MAPMTs

Long-term aging effects observed through repeated measurements

Validation of the test bench's effectiveness for quality assurance

Abstract

Both the future CBM-RICH and the recently upgraded HADES-RICH use Hamamatsu H12700 Multi-Anode Photomultipliers (MAPMTs) as their photon detectors. To test the MAPMTs thoroughly before using them in the detectors, the photon sensors were qualified well in advance and a test bench was built to efficiently characterize each MAPMT. The test bench measures the single photoelectron gain, dark rate, relative efficiency, and afterpulse probability of each channel. This article describes the operating principle of the test bench and discusses the distributions of each measured quantity over 1,100 MAPMTs. Additionally, the long-term aging effects of the H12700 MAPMT are investigated based on repeated measurements of individual MAPMTs.