Survey of Current and Future PMT Replacement Technology

Technical Report · Mon Nov 26 04:00:00 EST 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1770516· OSTI ID:1770516

Kazkaz, K. ^[1]; Swanberg, E. ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are the most commonly used instrument to monitor scintillating materials for radiation detection purposes. The International Atomic Energy Agency has identified disadvantages in PMTs that may degrade their performance, including temperature dependence and variation with magnetic field. Instrumentation engineering must also contend with a potentially large volume relative to the active scintillator volume, fragility, and high voltage requirements. Because of these concerns, we have studied emerging alternatives to PMTs that mitigate at least some of these disadvantages. To be of interest, the alternatives must have performance and cost comparable to the PMTs, and either be commercially available or close to commercial production. The best alternative we have identified is an array of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), with a potential secondary near-future alternative being a large-area picosecond photodetector. We compared the performance of a SiPM and a PMT in a laboratory setting using a single 2”x 2” cylindrical sodium iodide scintillating crystal. We measured the full-width, half-maximum energy resolution with the PMT and SiPM at 662 keV to be 6.14 ± 0.02% and 6.29 ± 0.03%, respectively, and at 1332 keV to be 4.61 ± 0.06% and 4.49 ± 0.05%, respectively. We also demonstrated how the SiPM bias can be varied to remove temperature dependence in cases either where the rate of temperature change is slow or the dwell time is sufficiently long to allow the system to come to thermal equilibrium.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-07NA27344
• OSTI ID: 1770516
• Report Number(s): LLNL-TR--759403; 946882
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY