No Arabic abstract
We study the potential of the MCP-PMT read-out to detect single photo-electron using transmission lines. Such a solution limits the number of read-out channels, has a uniform time resolution across the PMT surface and provides quasi-continuous measurement of the spatial coordinates. The proposed solution is designed to be used in the BOLD-PET project aiming to develop an innovative detection module for the positron emission tomography using the liquid detection media, the tri-methyl bismuth. In this study we use the commercial MCP-PMT Planacon from Photonis, with 32x32 anode structure. The PCB gathers signals from anode pads in 32 transmission lines which are read-out from both ends. Amplifier boards and SAMPIC modules, developed in our labs, allow us to realize the cost-effective, multi-channel digitization of signals with excellent precision. For a single photo-electron, we measured a time resolution of 70~ps (FWHM) simultaneously with a spatial accuracy of 1.6~mm and 0.9~mm (FWHM) along and across transmission lines correspondingly.
In order to develop a long-lifetime MCP-PMT under high rates of circumstance, we investigated the degradation of the quantum efficiency (QE) of PMTs with a multialkali photocathode. We found that not only positive ions, but also neutral residual gases would damage the photocathode resulting in an enhancement of the work function; their countermeasures were established in newly manufactured square-shaped MCP-PMTs with 4 or 4x4 multi-anodes. The performances of the PMTs were measured: QE was stable up to an integrated amount of anode output charge of 2-3 C/cm^2, while keeping other basic performances steady, such as the time resolution for single photons of ~40 ps, a photoelectron collection efficiency (CE) of 60%, a multiplication gain (G) of a few x 10^6, and dark counts of 20-300 Hz. The causes of QE degradation are discussed.
We have developed a 4-channel multi-anode MCP-PMT, SL10, which exhibits a performance of sigma_TTS ~ 30 ps for single photons with G ~ 10^6 and QE=20% under a magnetic field of B <= 1.5 T. The cross-talk among anodes has been extensively studied. We have taken two measures to suppress it: one is to configure the SL10 to an effectively independent 4 small pieces of MCP-PMTs by segmenting an electrode of the second MCP-layer; the other is to use a constant fractional discriminator. Remarkable improvement has been achieved.
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) will install about 18,000 20-inch Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs) in the center detector to achieve 3%/sqrt(E(MeV)) energy resolution. From the full detector Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, besides the liquid scitillator (LS) and Acrylic nodes, PMT glass has the largest contribution to the natural radioactive background. Various technologies have been developed in the Chinese industry to control the environment and to improve the production process. We have monitored the glass production for more than two months, and the radioactivity in glass was measured using a low background gamma ray spectrometer equipped with a high resolution HPGe detector. The 238U, 232Th and 40K of the glass bulb are reduced by a factor of 2, 9 and 15 respectively, and now they can reach 2.5 Bq/kg for 238U, 0.5 Bq/kg for 232Th and 0.5 Bq/kg for 40K.
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is proposed to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy using a 20 kiloton underground liquid scintillator detector (CD). One of the keys is the energy resolution of the CD to reach <3% at 1 MeV, where totally 15,000 MCP-PMT will be used. The optimization of the 20-inch MCP-PMT is very important for better detection efficiency and stable performance. In this work, we will show the study to optimize the MCP-PMT working configuration for charge measurement. Particularly, the quality of PMT signal is another key for high-precision neutrino experiments while most of these experiments are affected by the overshoot of PMT signal from the positive HV scheme. The overshoot coupled with positive HV which is troubling trigger, dead time and precise charge measurement, we have studied to control it to less than 1% of signal amplitude for a better physics measurement. In this article, on the one hand, the optimized HV divider ratio will be presented here to improve its collection efficiency; on the other hand, we will introduce the method to reduce the ratio of overshoot from 10% to 1%.
The Argonne micro-channel plate photomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT) is an offshoot of the Large Area Pico-second Photo Detector (LAPPD) project, wherein mbox{6 $times$ 6 cm$^2$} sized detectors are made at Argonne National Laboratory. Measurements of the properties of these detectors, including gain, time and spatial resolution, dark count rates, cross-talk and sensitivity to magnetic fields are reported. In addition, possible applications of these devices in future neutrino and collider physics experiments are discussed.