Performance study of a cesium iodide photocathode-based UV photon detector in Ar/CH4 mixture Download: 723次
1. INTRODUCTION
A cesium iodide photocathode coupled to an electron multiplying structure like the thick gas electron multiplier (THGEM) can act as a gaseous photomultiplier (GPM) sensitive to UV light [1,2]. The advantage of GPM is that it can achieve a very large active area with moderate position and timing resolution [3]. In semitransparent (ST) configuration, a thin film of CsI (30 nm) is coated over an UV transparent quartz window that acts as the photocathode. This is mounted a few millimeters above the electron multiplier.
A schematic representation of the working principle of a ST-type photocathode is shown in Fig
During the transit of the photoelectrons from the photocathode surface through the gas medium, some fraction of photoelectrons are scattered back to the photocathode surface as a result of elastic collisions with the gas atoms/molecules, even in the presence of the electric field. This effect results in a noticeable degradation of the effective photoemission from the photocathode in a gas medium as compared to vacuum [2–
There is various literature in which UV photon detection has been done with CsI photocathode coupled to THGEM [4,5]. But most of them are in a reflective mode, in which the CsI is directly deposited over the THGEM top electrode. The main advantage of using this configuration is the absence of the photon feedback effect, which restricts the performance of an UV photon detector. However, the effective photocathode area is more in the case of a ST configuration compared with a reflective one. Also, the ion backflow in cascaded THGEM GPMs coupled to a ST photocathode is as low as 2%, whereas for the reflective configuration, it is
To our knowledge, there was no literature available that studied the THGEM performance as an UV photon detector in ST mode with P10 gas mixture, which was considered a good gas mixture in terms of reduced backscattering [1,7]. It has been reported that the detection efficiency of GPMs using
In this paper, initially we have estimated the backscattering percentage in P10 gas and compared it with the widely used neon-based gas mixture. The performance of the UV photon detector in P10 mixture was studied experimentally. The electron pulse and the electron spectra were recorded and analyzed to find how the secondary effects like photon feedback affects the electron spectrum in an UV photon detector.
2. MODELING AND SIMULATION
In order to get an estimate of the percentage of photoelectrons backscattered to the photocathode, we have used the Monte Carlo technique with GARFIELD [11] to simulate the performance of the detector. 3D finite element modeling along with the electric field computation of the THGEM acting as the electron multiplier was carried out using ANSYS. The electron generation and transport properties in various gas mixtures were simulated using the GARFIELD program. The steps of simulation are described in [12].
Simulation results show that at 1 atm, the backscattering losses in P10 gas is around 18%, whereas for
Thus, from the simulation results, it can be concluded that P10 can also be considered as a good gas for UV photon detectors in terms of backscattering phenomenon.
3. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
3.1 A. THGEM Used as the Electron Multiplier Element
THGEMs having insulator thicknesses of 400 to 1000 μm, hole pitches between 700 and 1000 μm, and diameters between 300 and 1000 μm are typically used for UV photon detector applications [4,13]. In our studies presented in this paper, the geometrical parameters of the THGEM used were insulator thickness 250 μm, hole diameter 200 μm, and pitch 550 μm. A 100 μm rim created by chemical etching of copper was provided around each hole for reducing the probability of discharges [13].
3.2 B. Thermal Evaporation of CsI
CsI photocathode film was deposited onto the chromium-coated quartz using the thermal evaporation technique. In thermal evaporation, the material to be deposited is usually taken in the form of a powder in a molybdenum boat, which can withstand high temperature. The thermal evaporation process was carried out inside a vacuum chamber. High-purity cesium iodide (99.995% purity) was taken as the starting material. The melting point of CsI at
The UV transmission of the substrate used for a photocathode was measured with a spectrophotometer as shown in Fig.
3.3 C. Experimental Setup
The test chamber used for this study was made of aluminum with the dimensions of
Fig. 3. Schematic representation of the electronic chain used for recording the electron spectra from the UV photon detector.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 A. Study of the Electron Pulse and Electron Spectra from the UV Photon Detector
Electron spectra from the single THGEM-based GPM was acquired under different operating conditions, and detector properties like secondary effects prevailing at various operating conditions were studied. The spectra were taken in pulse-counting mode. The charge pulse is collected from the readout strips through a charge-sensitive preamplifier (ORTEC 142PC). The preamplifier converts the charge output from the detector to voltage output. Output signal of the preamplifier has a fast rise time and long fall time. A shaping amplifier (ORTEC 671A) was used for shaping the signal pulse from the preamplifier. The output of the amplifier was fed to a multichannel analyzer (MCA8000A). The detector pulse was observed in a digital oscilloscope (Tektronix DPO 4104) and the electron spectrum was recorded using the PC.
For our study, it was assumed that the number of photoelectrons generating a single signal pulse of a given pulse height remains the same throughout the present study. A drift gap of 5 mm was maintained in these studies. Figure
Electron spectra recorded for fixed drift and induction field with various
The slope of the curve was estimated at the central portion of the spectrum. This was done to exclude any error in the estimation coming from the electronic noise contribution in the lower part of the spectrum or from the feedback effects at the higher portion of the spectrum.
5. EFFECT OF PHOTON FEEDBACK ON ELECTRON SPECTRA
Analysis of the electron spectra obtained from the GPM working in the UV spectral range shows that the spectrum deviates from the exponential nature at higher channel numbers of the MCA. The deviation is caused due to the presence of some excess electrons contributing to the pulse height in this region of the spectrum. The presence of excess pulses as an enhanced tail of the exponential distribution in the spectrum is a clear indication of photon feedback [16]. A brief account of these phenomena is given below.
During high electron multiplication inside the THGEM hole, in addition to ionization, there may be simple excitation of the gas molecules without creation of secondary electrons. These excited molecules decay directly to the ground state through the emission of a visible or UV photons [17]. Some of these photons may escape the absorption by the quenching gas and hit back the photocathode emitting photoelectrons, which contribute to the pulse height. This is known as photon feedback effect [18]. This effect results significantly in the photocathode aging and hence is considered a major performance limiting factor for UV photon detectors.
We have studied the effect of different operating parameters like
5.4 A. Effect of Δ V THGEM on Photon Feedback
In order to study the effect of
5.5 B. Effect of Drift Field on Secondary Effects
We also studied the effect of the drift field, i.e., the electric field present between the photocathode and the THGEM on photon feedback at a
6. CONCLUSIONS
The detection efficiency of GPMs depends on the photocathode quantum efficiency and the extraction efficiency of photoelectrons into the gas medium. P10 gas is considered a good gas in terms of reduced backscattering, which is a major requirement of UV photon detectors. Simulation results show the percentage of backscattered electrons in P10 gas is either less [in comparison to the
UV photons were successfully detected from a CsI-based photocathode in ST configuration in P10 mixture. The study has been carried out using a single THGEM as the electron multiplier. The electron spectra recorded showed an exponentially decreasing behavior at low
Study on the effect of drift field on the photon feedback reveals that photon feedback is more pronounced at lower drift field as compared to higher drift field. The effect is correlated with the electron transfer efficiency of the THGEM, which is higher at lower drift fields.
[5] H.-B. Liu, Y.-H. Zheng, Y.-G. Xie, J.-G. Lu, L. Zhou, B.-X. Yu, A.-W. Zhang, Z.-H. An, Y.-G. Xie, D. Zhang, Z.-P. Zheng. Study of the THGEM detector with a reflective CsI photocathode. Chin. Phys. C, 2011, 35: 363-367.
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[18] A. Buzulutksov. Radiation detectors based on gas electron multipliers. Instrum. Exp. Tech., 2007, 50: 287-310.
Article Outline
G. Baishali, V. Radhakrishna, V. Koushal, K. Rakhee, K. Rajanna. Performance study of a cesium iodide photocathode-based UV photon detector in Ar/CH4 mixture[J]. Photonics Research, 2014, 2(3): 03000092.