A Comparison of the Effects of Neutron and Gamma Radiation in Silicon Photomultipliers

Journal Article · Thu Jun 06 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2019.2921102· OSTI ID:1560008

Biro, B. ^[1]; David, G. ^[2]; Fenyvesi, A. ^[1]; Haggerty, J. S. ^[3]; Kierstead, J. ^[3]; Mannel, E. J.  ^[3]; Majoros, T.  ^[4]; Molnar, J. ^[1]; Nagy, F. ^[1]; Stoll, S. ^[3]; Ujvari, B. ^[4]; Woody, C. L.  ^[3]

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1. Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Atomki), Debrecen (Hungary)
2. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Physics; Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
4. Debrecen Univ., Debrecen (Hungary)

The effects of radiation damage in silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) from gamma rays have been measured and compared with the damage produced by neutrons. Several types of multipixel photon counters from Hamamatsu were exposed to gamma rays and neutrons at the Solid State Gamma Ray Irradiation Facility (SSGRIF) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Institute for Nuclear Research (Atomki) in Debrecen, Hungary. The gamma ray exposures ranged from 1 krad to 1 Mrad and the neutron exposures ranged from 10 ⁸ to 10 ¹² n/cm ² . The main effect of gamma ray damage is an increase in the noise and leakage current in the irradiated devices, similar to what is seen from neutron damage, but the level of damage is considerably less at comparable high levels of exposure. In addition, the damage from gamma rays saturates after a few hundred krad, while the damage from neutrons shows no sign of saturation, suggestive of different damage mechanisms in the two cases. The change in optical absorption in the window material of the SiPMs due to radiation was also measured. This paper was carried out in order to evaluate the use of SiPMs for particle physics applications with moderate levels of radiation exposures.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0012704
• OSTI ID: 1560008
• Report Number(s): BNL-212053-2019-JAAM; TRN: US2000445
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 66, Issue 7; ISSN 0018-9499
• Publisher: IEEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Calorimeters
EIC
gamma rays
multipixel photon counter (MPPC)
neutrons
radiation damage
silicon photomultiplier (SiPM)
sPHENIX