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Description
A new type of photodetector — the Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), was developed using CMOS semiconductor technology. SiPM is an optical sensor that fully meets the requirements of modern applications. SiPM exhibits excellent performance, including single-photon response at room temperature (with an intrinsic multiplication gain of 10^6), high detection efficiency of 25-60%, and a fast response time of tens of picoseconds. Operating conditions are suitable for many applications: an operating bias voltage of 20-60 V, operation at room temperature and in refrigeration conditions, and immunity to electromagnetic fields.
Manufactured using modern semiconductor technology, compatibility with mass production technologies, compact size, a typical size of several mm², and flexibility in array assembly.
SiPM is used or proposed in many experimental physics studies. Examples include the large-scale hadron calorimeter system and the muon detection system for the International Linear Collider, data readout in the MAGIC experiment at the Cherenkov telescope, fiber scintillation detectors in the T2K neutrino experiment, and others.
In the search for magnetic monopoles (MM), one experimental approach could be to use the light response of MMs and dyons in a plastic or liquid scintillator with SiPM readout. Excitation of atoms caused by slow MMs passing through the scintillator results in a light yield significantly exceeding the yield of the minimally ionizing particle. The light yield saturates at velocities of 10³β 10¹, while it increases again at β > 0.1 due to secondary emission of delta-rays. Expanding the search for MMs to even lower velocities will require the use of detector materials with small band gaps; for example, acrylic scintillators with a high concentration of naphthalene are likely sensitive to MMs down to 5x10^(-4).
Another experimental approach could be to convert nuclear tracking detectors into real-time active detectors by monitoring a calibrated low-intensity light flux in the nuclear tracking detector using a SiPM.
