Radiation damage study of SensL J-series silicon photomultipliers using 101.4 MeV protons

Alexei Ulyanov,David Murphy,Joseph Mangan,Viyas Gupta,Wojciech Hajdas,Daithi De Faoite,Brian Shortt,Lorraine Hanlon,Sheila Mcbreen

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2020.164203

Abstract

Radiation damage of J-series silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) has been studied in the context of using these photodetectors in future space-borne scintillation detectors. Several SiPM samples were exposed to 101.4 MeV protons, with 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence ranging from 1.27×108 neq/cm2 to 1.23×1010 neq/cm2. After the irradiation, the SiPMs experienced a large increase in the dark current and noise, which may pose problems for long-running space missions in terms of power consumption, thermal control and detection of low-energy events. Measurements performed with a CeBr3 scintillator crystal showed that after exposure to 1.23×1010 neq/cm2 and following room-temperature annealing, the dark noise of a single 6 mm square SiPM at room temperature increased from 0.1 keV to 2 keV. Because of the large SiPM noise, the gamma-ray detection threshold increased to approximately 20 keV for a CeBr3 detector using a 4-SiPM array and 40 keV for a detector using a 16-SiPM array. Only a small effect of the proton irradiation on the average detector signal was observed, suggesting no or little change to the SiPM gain and photon detection efficiency.

Highlights

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are high-gain semiconductor photodetectors that are replacing traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) in the majority of terrestrial applications, thanks to their compactness, robustness, insensitivity to magnetic fields and low operating voltage
This continuous increase of the silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) dark current after the third exposure was due to SiPM self-heating, as the power dissipated by the SiPMs drawing the current of 55 mA was about 1.5 W
A large increase of the dark current observed in SensL J-series SiPMs after proton irradiation with 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence ranging from 1.27 × 108 neq/cm2 to 1.23 × 1010 neq/cm2 is similar to the results obtained in other studies with different SiPM types [8,9,11,12,14,15], it is difficult to do a quantitative comparison because of different measurement conditions, such as time after irradiation, temperature and SiPM gain

Summary

Introduction

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are high-gain semiconductor photodetectors that are replacing traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) in the majority of terrestrial applications, thanks to their compactness, robustness, insensitivity to magnetic fields and low operating voltage They have been proposed for many recent space missions and are being used in a gain control system on board the Hard Xray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), a Chinese X-ray space observatory launched in June 2017 [1]. One of the future gamma-ray astronomy missions that will employ and test SiPMs in space is the Educational Irish Research Satellite 1 (EIRSAT-1) [2,3]. It is a 2U CubeSat being developed by students at University College Dublin (UCD) as part of the European Space Agency’s Fly Your Satellite! The design of the detector is based on earlier studies at UCD using

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