Scintillation Detectors and Silicon Photomultipliers
We are developing a scintillating detector with two-dimensional position resolution of a few mm and Silicon-Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) readout.
SiPMs are novel developed semi-conductor detectors. Each SiPM consists of an array of avalanche photo diodes (APDs) where each APD represents one pixel of a SiPM which is capable of detecting single photons.
The scintillation detector consists of two trapezoidal shaped plastic scintillators, to form one rectangular shaped scintillator rod. Each trapezoid in a rod is optically insulated against the other. The amount of light produced by incoming particles is proportional to their path-length and thus position dependent. The position resolution along the scintillator rod is determined by the propagation time of light. In both trapezoids the scintillation light is collected by wavelength shifting fibers (WLS-fibers) and guided to SiPMs, where the light output is detected.
This detector will be part of the Cosmic Ray Facility in Garching. It is designed for large area applications with only few readout channels, whereby areas of a square meter are achieved by combining several scintillator rods.
