Novel method to study saturation of silicon photomultiplier in scintillation detector

Abstract

Signal saturation in the Silicon PhotoMultiplier (SiPM) often causes a serious problem in using a detector equipped with SiPMs for scintillator readout. Conventionally, SiPM signal saturation is measured through direct injection of visible light pulses to the SiPM. However, the method works poorly with the scintillation detector because the effects of the time constant of the emission of scintillation light are not included. Here, we present a novel method to measure the precise degree of SiPM signal saturation in scintillation detectors. The key difference from the conventional method is to use UV light pulses, as opposed to visible light ones, to inject and excite scintillation light in the detector. It allows us to directly measure the degree of saturation in situ taking into account all the major effects in the detector, such as the time constant of the scintillation emission. We also develop a new model for SiPM signal saturation and validate it with the measured degree of saturation with the above-mentioned new method.