Effects of radiation damage caused by proton irradiation on Multi-Pixel Photon Counters (MPPCs)

Jan, 2009
18 pages
Published in:
  • Nucl.Instrum.Meth.A 603 (2009) 301-308
e-Print:

Citations per year

200920132017202120241026
Abstract: (arXiv)
We have investigated the effects caused by proton-induced radiation damage on Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC), a pixelized photon detector developed by Hamamatsu Photonics. The leakage current of irradiated MPPC samples linearly increases with total irradiated doses due to radiation damage, which is not completely recovered even after a year from the irradiation. No significant change has been observed in the gains at least up to 8.0 Gy (9.1×1079.1\times10^7 n/mm2^2 in 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence, Φeq\Phi_{\rm eq}). The device has completely lost its photon-counting capability due to baseline fluctuations and noise pile-up after 21 Gy irradiation (2.4×1082.4\times10^8 n/mm2^2 in Φeq\Phi_{\rm eq}), which might be problematic for some applications, such as ring-imaging Cherenkov detectors. We have found that the pulse-height resolution has been slightly deteriorated after 42 Gy irradiation (4.8×1084.8\times10^8 n/mm2^2 in Φeq\Phi_{\rm eq}), where the measured sample has been illuminated with a few hundred photons. This effect should be considered in the case of energy-measurement applications.
Note:
  • 18 pages, 10 figures
  • 29.40.Vj
  • 29.40.Wk
  • Radiation damage
  • MPPC
  • SiPM
  • PPD
  • Photon detector
  • radiation: damage
  • photon: detector
  • p: irradiation